World nature art

Friday, 2 Sep 2005 | Miscellaneous

Today I visited the ‘world nature art’ exhibition in the Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam, which attempts to shed some light on how a view of nature is dependent on the culture of the viewer. The exhibit shows nineteen different themes, each as viewed from four cultures: indigenous, Asian, Islamic and western. Natalie asked me which of the cultures I could identify with the most.

The indigenous view was to alien for me. It was an ancient look at nature, which put humans as part of nature. Not a big surprise ofcourse, considering the source. As a cityboy, I don’t really felt drawn to this one. The Islamic view of nature put to much emphasis on God, being an atheist I couldn’t quite identify with this ofcourse. The western view on the other end was something I felt I knew really well. Our view has over time changed from dominated by to dominating nature, as we gained more power over controlling nature. The Asian view however was the one I could identify with most. It is all about respect for and harmony between humans and nature.

I’m sure my move to Asia makes me more of a sucker for ‘all things Asian’, so perhaps it’s not surprising this was the outcome. I like to believe I am still capable of objectivity though.