Bony Gardens in the Age of Climate Change

Still Life
CC Jean Stimmell: 8/8/15

One good thing, perhaps the only good thing, about Donald Trump's manic, infuriating, truth-damning presidency is that it has forced me to concentrate on things that really matter: like democracy, social justice, and climate change. In particular, he has forced me to consolidate a photographic  body of work I've been working on. Here is my artist statement along with a link to my bony photographs

The significance of bony gardens in the age of climate change

The garden is considered in the West to be the essence of life, containing “the life-giving tree, fruit, or flower, the reward of him who finds the center. The garden is the symbol of the soul”

However, to indigenous peoples, bones that embody everlasting life. To hunter-gatherers, bones are sacred objects, not just something for our dogs to chew on. – or something to bury or incinerate as we do human remains after we die, yet another commodity to bury, burn, and file away in our throw-away society..

No, as Mircea Eliade tells us, “for indigenous people, the bone symbolizes the ultimate root of Life,” the matrix from which the flesh is continually renewed. It is starting with the bones that animals and men are re-born... according to an uninterrupted cycle that constitutes an eternal return… 

Sadly, however, now that we humans have usurped the powers of the gods, we have taken over the power of life and death and are hell-bent to destroy Planet Earth. By progressively disrupting the climate, we are threatening the bed root assumption of all humans from the beginning  of time to now: the power of eternal returns.

Link to my photographs:
http://www.jeanstimmellphotography.com/new-work/bony-gardens.html