Utilitas (Africa) Drawing

The Utilitas series explores the relationship of human beings within nature. The term Utilitas (usefulness in Latin) refers to the act of making nature a commodity. Although members of the animal kingdom, we constantly quest to deny this fact and separate ourselves from nature. This series of images examines and comments on the socio-political and cultural constructs developed to create the illusion of dominance or ownership over nature and our environment – ranging from scientific classification and exploration to rituals of ownership through naming, from religious division to revised evolution through man-made (un-natural) selection. I chose to depict a salmon, in particular, because most salmons today are being farmed – an act of un-natural selection. The salmon as a species is no longer on a true evolutionary path. At the same time, wild salmons keep swimming to the upper river to find their spawning ground; like many other animals, they are defined by migration and by a specific place. This artwork features the schematic of the "Brookes", a British slave ship. This references the idea of false ownership and life as a commodity.