Video shoot by Yannick Soyez and Essay and Performer me Luke Foster
“Think like a queen. A queen is not afraid to fail. Failure is another stepping stone to greatness.”
Oprah Winfrey
As I wrote in my last essay, I should put the female role models in my essays and as role models for my life first in the next essay first. I feel Oprah is one such awesome female role model for all African American women in America, and for women around the world and for all people. I think that the essence of this quote is that women should have a healthy sense of confidence and I also think men should too.
Today I was talking about the role model my mum was for me with Yannick before the shoot and that I didn’t become my own mum until the age of fifty when my mother passed. And after the shoot on the way back over the sand dunes that I love grandmothers as they break the truth to me all the time but gently.
In the beach performance today, I was wearing blue Levis 501s, a white 2xl Kmart T-shirt, green Converse high tops, a brown Billabong felt hat, a transparent Swatch watch, Buddha stones bracelet and the video was shot on my I Phone and edited with I Movie on my MacBook Air. These are some of my favourite brands and I don’t just wear them for video and photo shoots but all the time as they are durable and fashionable in my opinion.
This is the third video shoot I have done with a TEMU cart and I got the idea to use the kart about four months ago when I saw a life saver bringing the gear for a patrol on the beach in such a kart and I automatically thought that they would look fantastic filled with Converse Allstar sneakers and with TEMU neon signs on top. As I have said before I like bringing the Chinese TEMU brand together with the iconic American Converse shoe and apparel brand. As I feel that trade between these nations brings prosperity for these countries and peace between them. However, I made this shoot a while ago with me pulling the kart on the beach but I ordered two karts and the second kart shall be a sculpture in my next show and feature in the beach performance today. This time I had four Kmart pillows in the Kart and a simple plaster structure with a doorway that I made to remake a video sculpture I made during my masters at art school over twenty-five years ago but I changed the sculpture quite a bit and now the video shall be projected out of a smaller plaster structure onto a projection screen sitting on an Ikea trestle table. The first kart shall also be a sculpture as I said with lots of Converse high tops and simple one-word neon’s like altruism, gratitude and happiness all key words from the Dalai Lamas Buddhist philosophy that I study most days.
Anyway, this essay is getting a bit convoluted and off track as what I really wanted to talk about is suggested by these beach performances with props and deliberate costumes that the greatest project facing humanity is saving this beautiful blue planet forever and I feel if we waste no time and the local and global community put differences aside then its achievable particularly if the world leaders and international think tanks work together.
“We don’t know that it’s too late. It’s in the doing and trying that we define that we’re a species that’s worthy. We’ve got to act because that is our hope”.
David Suzuki
I think that Doctor Suzuki is right and that we don’t know it’s too late. I know it seems to be an unsurmountable project but what is a more important issue than saving this beautiful blue planet forever. It shall be the biggest most long vision and expensive project that the global community has ever had to make.
I think a key to doing this for all the world leaders and think tanks is to see ourselves and I’m talking about humanity as the custodians of the earth including all animals, plants, trees insects and marine life. Everything is connected and inseparable and I feel we have to look at everything as a whole if we are to achieve this. In this essay I am deliberately alternating between female and male quotes and ideas as I think the key to this mammoth project is to have a balance of female and male ideas and energy and this shall lead to a very balanced out-look.
“One child, one teacher, one book, one pen can change the world. When the whole world is silent, even one voice becomes powerful.”
Malala Yousafzai
I think this quote by World Nobel Peace Laureate Malala Yousafzai is key to how these ideas can be dissipated to the world’s children the future custodians of the earth.
“Humans have reached the limits of what the planet can tolerate, and must learn to use science and technology responsibly.”
“Humans are short-term thinkers, and the problem of climate change is human-created and can only be solved by humans. “
These two quotes by the Dalai Lama are sort of the tip of the iceberg of all the issues facing humanity on how to save this beautiful blue planet forever and the problems we face.
In conclusion this essay is very simplistic and the issues facing humanity are complex and multiple and only the smartest most lateral thinking think tanks and world leader’s male and female shall be able to figure it out but what could be more important than saving the future of humanity and future generations and for all of nature plants animals and sea life. When this becomes to abstract for me while I beach walk, I look around at the beautiful nature, the trees on land and humans and birdlife and I think if we don’t act this shall all be gone, no humans, no trees no life of all forms.
