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| From Fish Mug Project |
Here is an opportunity for sustainable international development to intersect with culturally eclectic art forms. In the fisheries industry, the term "Fish Aggregating Device" relates to a kind of human-made alternative to a coral reef, which provides shelter for small fish, and in turn attracts schools of pelagic species like tuna. A little over ten years ago I had the opportunity to observe the Indonesian version of a Fish Aggregating Device, or in Bahasa, a Rompong.
On this mug in particular I was thinking about different ways of depicting objects across different culture. While artists in the west have traditionally tended to depict what we actually see, other cultural traditions approach the problem from a different perspective. Indigenous artists in Australia have a tradition of depicting an animal or object as more than just what meets the eye resulting in an X-ray like drawing that maps out the soul under scrutiny. I like this idea, and have borrowed it here.
