SEE SHELLS & CLIMATE CHANGE
a 1000 piece ceramic installation showing climate change of the last millennium
In this installation Jake Boex, a Ceramic Artist based in Porthleven, combined the research findings of the sclerochronology team with his ceramic works to create a visual display of ocean sea temperature change over the last 1000 years.
Before he came to focus on clay, Jake gained a PhD at the University of Exeter and taught geography and science. Teaching took him to remote places, and allowed him to work with monks in a Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Kathmandu. All these experiences inspire the work he makes today as he continues to explore issues of place, climate and spirituality through the medium of clay.
Jake explains the exhibition in his own words:
“Many people asked me about the installation and once the basic points are laid out, 1000 bowls each with a year written inside together spanning the last millennium and individually coloured to show the temperature of the North Atlantic in that year, then there is a sense that the explanation goes beyonds words.
Once this became clear, I found it easier to guide people on this by adding that by simply resting your eyes in the centre and allowing the patterns to emerge there is an experience that is hard to define. So perhaps this best explains the project, to touch on a non-conceptual aspect of our mind. It’s hard to define, yet pleasing and refreshing.
Teachings in Tibetan buddhism regularly refer to resting the mind in non-conceptual awareness and emphasise the importance of this for clarity of mind. Climate change is a far-reaching issue, which in-part occurs as a natural function of a dynamic system, however, human influence since the industrial revolution is unprecedented. If we continue to fail to see our interconnected place on the planet we will drive ourselves towards greater suffering. Now is the time to take action. But what action?
Recognising the place from where action arises is significant, a place of non-conceptual awareness can be seen to be the place from which the most effective action may arise. The unconditioned, the natural state of the mind is uninhibited and so allows most effective solutions to emerge.
We are so familiar with this place that we often dismiss it. A walk in the woods, a dip in the sea or glance at a cloud can all invoke natural mind, so we don’t need to go anywhere or actually really do any thing. What prevents us resting here, is worry and fear, past and future. So by recognising the present, as the foundation of the mind, we can refresh and rejuvenate ready to take the most effective action.”
