Art & the Monsterisms
Fiona Craig maintains that Postmodernism, in the visual arts creative area, has gradually morphed within itself and transformed into a multi faced 'monster'. She believes that it has shown itself as turning against truth and the virtues of Western Society. It can be said that Postmodernism has held value in producing a creative excitement in the world of the arts but, in recent years, Postmodernism has reared it's profit making lens that has led to global disproportionate financial gain in manufacturing.
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By expanding on the importance of indigenous art, Fiona Craig maintains that there is role played in art movements with regard to how art has a subconscious on society's level of self-worth. People have lost the ability to discern genuineness from falsehoods and, by examination of our own indigenous values, discernments can be recovered. By a direct experience with Australian indigenous culture, Fiona Craig has made bold contrasts between natural styles of art and some of the ruinous exploits of Postmodern art. She believes that, by emphasizing a more native perspective, adverse modern markets can be contrasted.
Man's interest in art can highlight the forms that are innately authentic to his origin. There have been many art movements that have embraced natural forms but, beginning with the late nineteenth-century, Symbolism had its origins in large areas of Europe and Russia. The Symbolists orientated their style deeply with nature. In contrast, a more contemporary world of Postmodernism appeared in the early and middle decades of the twentieth century. World trade took a prolonged interest in Postmodernism because of its global profiteering in the manufactured world. Not only has this led us into a world of questioning ‘reality’ but the commercial narrative has begun to impede man's ability to discern between truth and untruths.
Fiction and non-fiction are the same in postmodernistic terms and economic power makes hay in further confusing society internationally, using an obsequious ploy to generate global commerce. Fiona Craig asserts that modern man is viewing life through this postmodernistic lens and, consequentially, our values are impaired. In reaction to this, more and more people are losing sight of their self significance and authenticity. Since cavemen have made drawings, indigenous concepts have existed in man’s psyche. Fiona Craig maintains that man is now beginning to make an individual choice in rejecting the depreciating areas of Postmodernism in order to identify with values closer to that of more natural principles. The meaning of global Indigenous culture have stirred and the arts are now beginning to reveal natural authenticity.
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From the world of countless symbols and logos, one example of shape is the geometric parabola. The form can define the sublime image and it¡s repeated in nature such as; mountains, tree bows, river bends, rainbows etc. As a geometric shape it's used in physical structures such as archways, tunnels and the visual metaphor that represents entry or exit. The “Golden Arches” are two parabolas shaping the letter . We are trained to recognise such imagery and when painted bright yellow, positioned at height on the side of a highway, the symbol becomes a means to satisfy hunger and thirst for a traveler. The image is highly visible, night or day, so the elements of animal classical conditioning are already at play. The psychological method of marketing used here is directly akin to the principles used in Pavlovian dog Classical Conditioning!
​Furthermore, countless powerful structures such as the pyramid, are symbolically represented by controversial imageries such as the Illuminati 2D image. Animals images, for example, the eagle and lion are used as also other dynamic representations such as the Ancient Greek 'swoosh' shape! The icon is already hundreds of years old but it's recognised as an established symbol by a billionaire profiting shoe and clothes manufacturing business of the modern age. We know of countless more, but there are symbols in the minds of men who have, for thousands of years, identified with much wiser concepts. Artists of the late nineteenth-century Symbolists used natural images in compositions of artworks such as those painted by Bosch, Gauguin, Van Gogh, etc. Business and commerce are slowly gaining ownership of our thoughts through trademark symbols. Attempts are made to reverse the process of trading symbology with naturally beautiful imaging but, unfortunately, some populations fully identify with consumerism. Proof of this is witnessed in people buying and wearing of clothing bearing the logos of multinational companies. To identify with commercialism is to submit to losing oneself to the ploy of the postmodernistic marketing. It's here where there's no distinction made between the truth and false, mans purpose is only to consume. More recent postmodern art reflects this very narrative,
Fiona Craig studied art in schools and colleges, both in the UK and Australia and gained Bachelor status by studying Psychology 1 and Education at two universities in Sydney, New South Wales. By painting and continuously teaching in Australian schools, she became familiar with the ancient mythologies of the Australian indigenous people. Through the visual arts, narrative and dance she developed awareness of the Australian aboriginal myth and ancestral universal belief by their expression in dance, story telling, art and by witnessing Blue Mountain images scratched into rocks and the red earth.
Similar to that of many other ancient indigenous cultures, Australian aboriginal symbols represent many natural concepts but, more specifically, revealing the awe of The Dreamtime. It belongs to the Australian aboriginal and it exists between the earth and cosmos. When arriving in Spain, Fiona Craig perceived the tall naturalistic structures of Gaudí's Barcelona and she was reminded of the aboriginal legends of the land, oceans, sky, and plants of Australia. Her artworks became a Westerners impression of the absorption of natural elements. The emergence between nature and sacred geometrical symbology occurred. As like other artists, she works to present natural images, bringing them from an inner world of symbolism to the world of matter on canvas. Fiona believes that, in whichever language religion or spiritual connection a person holds, indigenous symbols of our own world region will always remain to be an essential part of our nature.
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“Learn to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else.”
Leonardo da Vinci