Abstract
Following its discovery over a century ago, the art of Minoan Crete has come to symbolise a culture with which clearly venerated nature with exuberance and vitality. Can ancient ritual practices offer contemporary cultures a model for interactions with the natural world?nature? In the face of ecological crises, contemporary art practice often explores human entanglements with nature in a range of media, questioning the idea of human exceptionalism. By looking at religious practices in Bronze Age Crete, can we see a way to develop less more inclusive relationships with the natural world? Material forms of the veneration of nature are varied. This paper looks at the works of contemporary artists who examine entanglements between humans and the natural world, honouring this relationship. In some cases, these works memorialise significant losses of species and impacts on biodiversity. Similarly, artistic and ritual practices in Minoan Crete indicate widespread veneration of natural forms including water, trees and rocks, and ritual actions using ceramics and painting to arrive at an epiphanic state. How can we look to our ancient past and learn ways of addressing the future?
Presenters
Fiona Edmonds-DobrijevichLecturer, Faculty of Arts And Social Sciences, University of Technology Sydney, Australia
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Minoan,Ceramics,Ecology,Entanglements,Art
