BLANK 2

Like Jan Robert Leegte's slot machine in a previous post, Rubens Mano (São Paulo, 1960) made an artistic statement by removing the options of a gambling tool a decade earlier.

Having no choice or options can either be liberating or frustrating, depending on you state of mind ... to put it in a zen way.


Rubens Mano, 'Let's Play' (1998)

PLANT-PEACE-PIECE

In the spirit of Flower Power activist artists Christopher Humes and Noah Scalin cooperated on their 'Plant The Piece' project in 2004.

In reaction to the Virginia Tech killings and adopting theories of Japanese radical gardener Masanobu Fukuoka they created gun shaped plant seed packages in red clay. Once planted in the ground a mixture of wild flowers would grow.

The 'Seed Guns' can still be purchased if you are interested in burying the hatchet!

Christopher Humes and Noah Scalin, 'Plant The Piece' (2004)

FLOWER POWER

Before the 19th century 'nature' was a threat to the (European) civilian rather then a place to enjoy. Since the Romantic art movement of the 19th century (e.g. see Caspar David Friedrich) 'nature' has become something to cherish and respect and even a symbol for freedom and peace.

The Flower Power hippies of the 1960's exploited the idea of nature conquering violence and repression. Iconic is the 'flower-in-gun' picture taken at the Kent State anti-Vietnam-war protests (and shootings) of 1970, an image soon adapted by the soldiers in Vietnam.