art-time-collective

“There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone circling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being evolved” –Charles Darwin

Darwin sees evolution as a non-hierarchical explosion of multi-directional changes and adaptations. I tried to capture the essence of the great man, tending to his idea over the multiple decades he spent developing his theory. The artwork is based on (and incorporates) Darwin’s sketch of his proposed Tree of Life, which in a lot of ways continues to be much more accurate than the forward-facing, teleological depictions of evolution we see today. Darwin’s figure was developed by manipulating various images (a bust of Darwin, a suit, a pair of shoes and a watering can), and the tree (along with its foliage) was drawn on the computer. The top of the tree, wherein speciation is shown, is Darwin’s original image, as are the words “I think,” which I believe, in their scribbled-down context, to be the two most modest words ever written.

Accompanying this image is an essay I recently wrote for my History of Evolution course, which provided inspiration for the direction in which I decided to take this artwork.

Hope to hear your thoughts,

–Ionatan Waisgluss

Filed under: botanical, digital manipulation, sketches | 6 Comments »