top of page
Writer's pictureTyler A Deem

Cultural Amalgam: Reality of Energy

Updated: Sep 24, 2022

CULTURAL JUXTOPOSITION

Mixed Media Collage Series



In an attempt to combine differing cultures and histories into a new form of shared or global culture, these collages juxtapose imagery that explores the progress of mankind. While we all celebrate the differences in who we are and where we're from, there is often a loss in a greater identity when we divide and categorize our populations. We are all citizens of Earth and are gifted with one shared Reality. This collage series is an exercise in representing our universal and globalized society and how we are ultimately related in our shared and separate sub-realities.


 

The age of oil-powered machinery has propelled mankind into a world of immense prosperity and progress. Over millions of years the earth occasionally contributes to the natural process of catagenesis which provides a fuel more efficient than wood or coal. It has revolutionized travel in ways we are still witnessing today. We could not travel to space without oil, and all those aspirations come with dark pasts.


We are a product of our environment and we are only limited by our curiosity and ingenuity. There has been a lot of sweat, toil and pain tolerated for generations to give us this gift of energy. Like in the myth of Prometheus, the consequences of that new knowledge are everlasting as it is used. Propulsion becomes a tool of imaginable power that can be used for good and bad, and is used so. By creating imagery that connects and reveals a lineage of discovery, it can embody that dialog and remind people of their humble beginnings and limitless potential.


Cultural Amalgam: Progression of Energy, 2022. Printed media collage, 8.5"x 8.5".



Comments


bottom of page