THE BAOBAB IS COMPRISED OF SIX ELEMENTS, EACH OF WHICH SYMBOLICALLY GESTURES TO THE MAIN THEMES OF THE COLLECTION: NATURE, DEATH, CONTROL, KNOWLEDGE AND TIME.
(B) UNCONSTRAINED BORDER:
NATURE'S CONTROL OVER MAN.
(C) WHITE PATCHES:
TIME AND DECAY.
(D) UNIFORM CURVES:
KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING.
(E) NONUNIFORM CURVES:
IGNORANCE AND MISUNDERSTANDING.
(F) MAGNIFYING LENS:
MAN'S EFFORTS TO RESEARCH AND LEARN.
THREE COMPOSITIONS, TITLED 'POWER', 'DISCOVERY' AND 'DECAY', ARE GENERATED THROUGH A SPECIFIC SELECTION OF THE ABOVE SIX ELEMENTS, PROGRAMMATICALLY INTERWOVEN TOGETHER THROUGH ADVANCED TRIGONOMETRIC GRAPHING TECHNIQUES. FOR EXAMPLE, THE COMPOSITION 'POWER' IS GENERATED WITH ELEMENTS: A, B, D AND E, WHEREAS 'DECAY' IS GENERATED WITH ELEMENTS: A, C, and D. THE SELECTION OF ELEMENTS FOR EACH COMPOSITION IS INTENTIONAL, IN ORDER TO TELL A STORY.
THESE STORIES ARE DESCRIBED BELOW.
POWER.
DURING MY TRAVELS THROUGH MADAGASCAR, I LEARNT OF THE BAOBAB TREE’S ABILITY TO GROW RICH FRUIT IN THE SUB-SAHARAN DRY SEASON, THEIR ENORMOUS HEIGHTS, AND LIFESPANS OF OVER 1000 YEARS. THESE MAGNIFICENT BAOBAB TREES EARNED A NICKNAME, AFRICA’S 'TREE OF LIFE’, WHICH WAS MADE FAMOUS BY DISNEY’S THE LION KING. BUT TO BE GIVEN THE TITLE OF ‘LIFE’, AND AT THE SAME TIME, BE ON PATH FOR EXTINCTION, DEMONSTRATES THE FRAILTY OF OUR WORDS WHEN TESTED AGAINST NATURE AND TIME. THE DIRECT CONTRAST BETWEEN MAN'S IDEALISTIC VIEW AGAINST THE REALITY OF NATURE INSPIRED THIS COMPOSITION. FOR EVERY PIECE, THE TREE'S TRUNK IS SPLIT THROUGH THE CENTRE. THE RIGHT HAS CONSTRAINED BORDERS, DEMONSTRATING OUR DESIRE TO CONTROL NATURE, AND UNIFORM CURVES, SIGNIFYING OUR KNOWLEDGE. THE LEFT HAS NONUNIFORM CURVES WHICH TRICKLE OUT OF THE BORDERS, SYMBOLISING HOW A LACK OF KNOWLEDGE LEADS TO NATURE OVER-POWERING OUR EFFORTS TO CONTROL. EACH PIECE GENERATED, THEREFORE, SIGNIFIES THE BATTLE OF POWER BETWEEN MAN AND NATURE.
DISCOVERY.
THE TRUE AGE OF BAOBAB’S HAS FOR CENTURIES REMAINED A MYSTERY. THIS IS DUE TO THEIR ABSENCE OF UNIFORM TREE RINGS IN THEIR TRUNKS. ONLY RECENTLY, DUE TO ADVANCES IN RESEARCH FOR CARBON DATING, THE BAOBAB’S AGE HAS BEEN RELIABLY MEASURED AT AROUND 1015 YEARS. THE NEXT PIECE, ‘DISCOVERY’, BUILDS UPON ‘POWER’, WHERE CURVES ARE UNIFORM, DEMONSTRATING THE PROBLEM OF LIMITED KNOWLEDGE HAS BEEN OVERCOME. THE BORDERS ARE COMPLETELY UNCONSTRAINED, SETTING THE STAGE FOR A SITUATION WHERE MAN IS COMPLETELY OUT POWERED. EACH PIECE INCLUDES A CIRCLE, SYMBOLIC OF A MAGNIFYING GLASS, TO EXPRESS THE CONCEPT OF RESEARCH, CUTTING THROUGH BARRIERS AND BRINGING ORDER TO CHAOS, AS IS DEMONSTRATED BY THE CONSTRAINED BORDERS WITHIN THE CIRCLE.
THROUGH MY JOURNEY CARRYING OUT HEALTH RESEARCH IN MADAGASCAR INDEPENDENTLY, I HAVE BEEN MET BY MANY UNANTICIPATED ROAD BLOCKS SUCH AS LIMITED TRANSPORT OPTIONS, LOSS OF CELLULAR CONNECTION DUE TO POWER OUTAGES, AND LANGUAGE BARRIERS. ‘DISCOVERY’ EXPLORES THE DYSTOPIAN REALITY OF RESEARCH, WHERE DESPITE EFFORT AND CONTROL, MOST ATTEMPTS IN RESEARCH LEAD TO FAILURE. THEREFORE, WITHIN THE CIRCLE, THE FLOW OF CURVES SHOW INSIGNIFICANT CHANGE, SYMBOLISING THAT FOR EACH GENERATED PIECE, THE RESEARCH ATTEMPT DREW NO CONCLUSION AND NOTHING REMARKABLE WAS FOUND, DESPITE SIGNIFICANT EFFORT.
DECAY.
‘DECAY’ IS THE FINAL COMPOSITION OF THE BAOBAB COLLECTION. IT AGAIN, BUILDS ON THE PREVIOUS COMPOSITIONS; THE BORDERS ARE NOW CONSTRAINED, MEANING COMPLETE CONTROL, THE CURVES ARE UNIFORM, MEANING COMPLETE KNOWLEDGE, A SIGNIFICANT CHANGE HAS BEEN FOUND WITHIN THE CIRCLE, MEANING THE RESEARCH WAS SUCCESSFUL. THE WHITESPACES SYMBOLISE TIME, AND HOW DESPITE HAVING ALL OF WHAT THIS WORLD CAN OFFER, DEATH AND DECAY IS INEVITABLE. BY DRAWING PARALLELS TO THE EXTINCTION ANTICIPATED FOR THE TREE OF LIFE, WE SEE HOW DESPITE THE BAOBAB TREE’S POWER, FAME, STATUS, DURABILITY AND LIFESPAN, ITS TIME IS STILL LIMITED. THEREFORE, EACH COMPOSITION OF ‘DECAY’ IS A REMINDER OF HOW EVERYTHING IN THIS WORLD, INCLUDING LIFE, IS FINITE, AND TO INSPIRE PEOPLE TO LOOK FOR GREATER MEANING THAN ALL THAT WHICH IS MATERIAL AND SUBJECT TO DECAY.
