‘Nothing Is Separate: A Collaboration with Nature,’ is an experimental, traveling installation created by Detroit-based mixed-media artist Ellen Rutt as part of Temple Children’s artist residency in Hilo, Hawaii. By creating intuitive compositions of painted, repurposed wood shapes and costumes at several of the island’s majestic, distinct and isolated terrains, Rutt explores the complex relationship humans have with both natural and constructed environments. The bright colors and familiar shapes signal our attraction to aesthetics and modes of idealized presentation.
“I’m acknowledging my own contradictions and our collective moral flexibility – how we are simultaneously celebrating the sacredness of the natural world, while also engaging in practices that knowingly or unknowingly contribute to its destruction. We are balanced on a continuum between understanding the infinite nature of existence and participating in the mundane routine of everyday life.”
Photo and video by Emad Rashidi.
