Nature: Friend or Foe?

The chalkboard art was made by Joseph Beuys who was born in Germany. According to the didactic, this blackboard is from a lecture in Bochum, Germany. This piece of art features an animal in the center with lines connecting it to a drawing of a man, a mountain, and the sun. Beuys was a self-proclaimed advocate for nature being the center of society. It may be interpreted that this drawing is a reflection of his personal views on nature. He titled the piece "The Social Organism - a Work of Art." Unquestionably, Beuys not only admired the environment but also believed that there is information to be learned from observing it. The multiple lines connecting the different drawings illustrates the various ways that individuals connect to nature. The lines attaching the outer images form a circle which  symbolizes of wholeness and the everyday cycle of life and death. His use of an industrial surface to convey the raw beauty of nature figuratively conveys the lives of man and nature colliding. Nature is portrayed as a friend of man and willing to share the secrets of life. The drawing of the man contains a large heart which implies caring for the environment.

The four images were taken in the western part of the United States by Mark Ruwedel. In contrast to Beuys, Ruwedel makes it clear that nature is not delicate or amicable towards humans through naming this collection of photographs "Pictures of Hell." The terrain of the photographs is desolate, rugged, and unforgiving. His collection focuses on mankind's impact on nature as destructive and irreversible. In his opinion, there is nothing to learn from nature because its authenticity has been tainted by human expansion. While the pictures would be considered very beautiful in this age, he titles the piece a exceedingly unattractive name. The barren landscape is a representation that nature has little to offer humans. Additionally, the images portray nature away from society indicating that each are not reliant upon each other. The independence of nature is conveyed as a positive rather than a disadvantage. The images do not fill the entirety of the frame but are minimized to tangibly represent that there is more to life than industrial development of the environment and learning from surroundings. The choice to make the photographs black and white instead of color can represent the harmful effect that industrialization has on nature. Human development strips the vibrancy of life from nature through destroying the habitat of many animals and depleting resources.

These two artists have conflicting views of what nature has to offer humanity. However, they both express their opinions in equally beautiful ways. While Beuys conveys a symbiotic relationship between nature and humanity, Ruwedel portrays a relationship in which both nature and society are each other's parasite. Both artists use art to express their opinions and agree that it is a useful to convey ideas through this form. Ruwedel utilizes the space of the isolated desert to further the idea that humans and nature are better when separated. In contrast, Beuys chooses a common blackboard as his surface to portray his desire for the connection between the environment and humanity to be strengthened.