Being The World

A Field for the Art Gallery of New South Wales, A Room for the Great Australian Desert (cat.), Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 1989

Nature is within us. We are sick when we do not feel it. The sickness of feeling separate from the world is what is killing it. We are earth above ground, clothed space, seen by light. The distance inherent in sight has made us treat the ‘outside’ as different. The dominance of reason depends on the continued externalisation of the world. The light of reason is balanced by the darkness of the body. The unknownness of the mind and the unknownness of the universe are the same. If we are to survive, we must balance outer action with inner experience of matter. This is the great subjectivity and the great unity. The unity is expressed by those who live close to the earth in living ways. We must integrate our perceptions of the dynamic interpenetration of the elements with the workings of the mind and realise them in the workings of the body. We must become consciously unconscious and unconsciously conscious. We are the world, we are the poisoners of the world, we are the consciousness of the world.