The Earth Matters blog of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of African Arts published an article by Charles Okereke, titled 'Earth, a Dying World?'. The article uses images from the Unseen World's 'Planeterium' sub-series to illustrate and question the state of the earth and man's role in restoring and rejuvenating the earth.
Read an excerpt below:
Guest Voices: Charles Okereke
Today’s guest post comes to
us from photographer Charles Okereke. Based in Nigeria, Okereke’s work, Once in a Blue World was featured in the Earth Matters exhibition.
Charles was also featured earlier on our blog... Now Okereke comes to us with
his own words and meditations on his powerful and personal,
world-conscious photographs. Be sure to visit Okereke’s blog for more
works of art and news about this renowned photographer
at charles-okereke.blogspot.com/.
Earth, a Dying World?
by
Charles Okereke
The Earth was made as a dwelling place for all creatures, which also includes man.
Of all the creatures dwelling therein, Man is the destroyer when he
was otherwise crowned with sovereignty. This arrogant attitude indicates
an excess of self-worth, and has made man a plunderer rather than a
nurturer.
Human beings are the only creatures that have set rules apart for themselves and refuse to conform to laws that guide creation’s movement and sustenance. Man is similarly the only creature that is out of tune with the eco-system and plagued with a one-sided narrow intellectual outlook.
What is sensed and termed as catastrophes globally today are but a
retroactive consequence of a misalignment of the forces of nature –
mankind so to speak, has dug its own grave, like dying Worlds.
Hdramhindra Blasted (2010)
This period of recompense will be felt globally in every facet of
human endeavor, not only environmentally or climatically. But it will
likewise reflect in socio-political affairs, which can already be
surmised in the upheavals that are perennial occurrences today.
Man has been living in an exclusively selfish mentality, devoid of
the understanding of the powers which he uses daily, ignoring nature’s
principles and adjusting thereby. Economic affairs are collapsing;
nations are in conflict, and there is uprising everywhere.
Dis-integration Cameo (2010)
These are visible reverse processes, as the system has to
automatically be put back into orderliness by eliminating the inferior
and the destructive, be they man or animals, worlds and planets,
landscapes and mountains, rivers and oceans, man against man, nations
against nations, economic shifts and the rest of them – all these are
manifestations of the activities of the Lords of the elements, which man
sees as warfare in nature, and perceives one-sidedly as cruel in their
manifestations and activities.
Collapse of Andromeda Emperial (2011)
Even in routine designs, we know there is a designer with a purpose
who strives to make his designs adaptable and useful to the original
intention for its creation; how much more for an automatic pulsating
life form like the Earth with her inherent regulatory system. Mankind
can only learn by compulsion and experiences in the coming years to
adapt naturally.
My concern comes from the simple understanding that we are all
connected and a part of the ecosystem, and by my sense of duty to
maintain a healthy and natural world...
To read more, visit Guest Voices: Charles Okereke
To view more images from 'The Unseen World' Series, click here
