This is a story of an orphaned girl who recognises the value of unity and harmony (the glow held in her hands) and looks deeper and beyond the tools and behaviours of conflict (arrow, shield and bow on the elephant's head).

 

Concept palette:

This painting explores the seemingly disparate concepts of tension releasing itself into a fight or flee response, the treatment of convicts by the British Empire, migration and unity and the development of weapons.

 

In humans and many animals, tension triggers when something valuable becomes vulnerable, and this tension then releases as an attack or retreat response. This Tension, Fight, Flight (TFF) mechanism can manifest as everything from simple arguments to full scale physical conflict. 

 

The underlying emotions driving this TFF response can range from slight tension, annoyance and worry, to, at higher intensities, strong tension that releases into rage or intense fear. There could also be a rapid interplay between these three emotional elements; for example tension becoming anger and then fear and back to tension and anger again.

 

The giant African elephant represents this primal TFF mechanism within us all. As much as we may rationalise the reason for conflict, often the underlying emotions arise first naturally, and push us into conflict. So the behaviour, actions and tools to attack and to defend, as represented by the ornate arrow and shield on the elephant's forehead, are aspects of this instinct within us. Tension is represented by the bow behind the shield, with the bow string broken and floating to form ornate patterns. Jewellery on and beneath the shield represents that which is valuable that was once protected by the shield.

 

Similar to the tension from bowstring becoming art, the arrow is depicted as an ornate pattern, and pointed upwards as if to say, when the desire to attack arises, don't suppress the feeling, but redirect it into art and empathy (arrow pointed upwards). This way art is used to vent an emotion to release its energy safely without harming others. 

 

The girl and the elephant have departed the ship in the background – the ship itself represents the progress of technology, (weapons technology in the context of this painting), which is driven by the same instincts that have existed from the time of bows and arrows to nuclear weapons today.

 

Migrants to new lands are in some ways orphans, having separated from their families, societies and surroundings they leave behind. Essentially, they would have abandoned things of value, which is represented by the jewellery on and beneath the shield - the child had to relinquish such things of value and with it, the need to shield these.

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She focuses on something more valuable – unity and harmony, represented by the glow above her cupped hands. Like the glow of the moon, the desire for unity and harmony is universal and can exist even during times of war (for example, manifesting as stronger unity within an army or a nation under attack). The glow she safeguards is like the sun at night, it may not be visible, but its light persists by way of the moon.

She now works closer to the emotions, focusing less on the behaviours or the tools and weapons of conflict. The specific emotions are anger and fear represented by each tusk (elephants use their tusks to both attack and defend) and tension as represented by the massive spring-like trunk.

 

The glow which hovers over a boomerang represents another instinct –  for us to connect with others to form one community. In this vein, the likely African origins of many of our instincts are returning once again to Australia. Working with the underlying and universal emotions across all races offers a better prospect for sustainable unity and harmony, rather than focusing on behaviours and tools/objects we create.

 

The orphaned kangaroo joey watches on with interest, perhaps with apprehension to see if this newfound way to work with our universal primal emotions would deliver one of humanity's greatest goals – to live in unity and harmony.

 

See related painting Adaptation and Government.