Globe of change
Wishes for our earth


 There are a lot of things in our world that aren’t too nice... We as single individuals are weak and very often things that we intend as being well-meant turn out quite to be the contrary.

The effect that the beat of a butterfly’s wing has is not calculable and yet, the scope of the effects of it are not limited. Let us try to do something which is completely illogical and beautiful at the same time: beats of butterflies‘ wings for our world as ‘change paintings‘. These are paintings with pictures on both sides, preferably on wood or any kind of fabric turning and spinning with the wind. On one of the sides we put a wish for the earth, nice and colourful in oil or wax paint colour or the like. Why not saying it symbolically! A tree crammed with fruit, a flower, a butterfly, a bird in flight, a poem... . A wish that we have for our own deleopment can be a wish for the earth, too. On the second side we portray ourselves: our name, a symbol respresenting us or a picture that shows us doing something for the earth.

If we want peace for two people or the peoples of the world we put colours, names, flags or any other sign for it on both sides of the ‘change paintings‘. In doing this we are present on both sides as the wish’s creator.

Like butterflies in summer, like Tibetian prayer ribbons these signs will encourage people and will carry a little bit of the joy of life and hope out into the world. When you put the paintings at some place in the open air everybody can see them or take them with him to set them at liberty again at any other place he or she likes.
These paintings are meant to stand for something that cannot be owned but is a present for our contemporaries. I, for example, leave a ‘change painting‘ at a lot of places I visit. Hanging in a tree, a hedge or as a present at someone’s home.
This is my request when meeting with our ‘task‘: let us hope to be able to recognize it and let us be ready for a change. Opposite sides unite by accepting changes on both sides.

Here in Germany we have started a school project which is called “Wishes for our earth“. By 15 May 2004 we are going to build a globe made of metal rings, in which a lot of these paintings can be placed and where they can move and turn until they move on again to another destination.

If you have got some nice paintings that you would like to give us we would be extremely happy to get them. Send them virtually by e-mail, as picture enclosed in a letter or send the real painting in a parcel. You might as well just bring them along, if you intend to visit us!

If you like this idea spread the message in your own words, your own language. And you can always pass this text on, of course, if you like.
 

E-Mail: axelluther@web.de

Axel Luther
Königsallee 82
DE-95448 Bayreuth

Germany


Neighbours in a “World of Change” Wishes for the Future of the Earth

Region initiates international Project of Art and Education

The “Environment Day” in Hollfeld on 15th May 2004 marks the highlight of an  international Project of Art and Education.

Children play the leading role in this project, school classes from the whole region and pupils from many other places will be collecting and engraving their wishes for the future of the world on small wooden boards which will eventually be put together  in a three-dimensional colourful image of the “World of Change”.

Each class taking part in the project has been financially subsidized by a local club, a firm or another business. Links with Agenda 21- groups of experts from different countries - have been established.

This piece of art is based on an idea of the Hollfeld artist Axel Luther , who likes to compare it with Tibetan prayer flags, with prayers being engraved on wooden boards by  the pupils. These boards will be driven by the wind, thus expressing their symbolic effect.

 We all breathe the same air

Just as these wooden boards are connected by pieces of string, so are we all connected to our environment in many different ways. Many of these ways are very obvious: We all breathe the same air.The same drops of water, which pour down on us have perhaps quenched the thirst of a desert Bedouin. Likewise the fumes from industrial chimneys are carried by the wind over the whole world. Not only ecologically, but also socially and economically we are all inter-connected.

Those boards which cannot be displayed on the Hollfeld globe will be hung on trees and other objects in the vicinity.

Wherever they are on display and turn in the wind, they will send their message all over the world.

 Describing the project

 In their preparation the pupils have been looking closely at 21 different topics, from the hole in the ozone layer, water ecology and the diversity of species to subjects such as AIDS, world hunger and the population explosion, not forgetting the social integration of disabled people and the cohabitation of different ethnic groups. The result of their efforts can be seen on Hollfeld’s Environment Day.

 Aims and targets

 This project day aims at making one thing in particular clear to the children: We are all living as neighbours in the same world and are dependent on each other. We have no other choice but to think globally. Thought, however, must be followed by action! And this begins right here, as our demonstration shows.

Finally, perhaps the most important aspect of all: If one were to tear the strings apart by removing just one of its wooden boards, the whole installation would collapse - just as our world will collapse if we don’t work together.

E-Mail: axelluther@web.de

Axel Luther
Königsallee 82
DE-95448 Bayreuth

Germany