Wednesday, 16 April 2025
Apple CEO Tim Cook
One Apple Park Way; Cupertino, CA 95014, U.S.A.
From Luke Foster
Dear Tim,
I am an Australian artist and writer and I am an avid Apple fan and use Apple computers, I Pad and I Phone. I particularly like using my I Phone to shoot videos and photos and use I Movie to edit the videos and write essays on my Mac Book Air.
I am sending you a bunch of drawings and videos and photos on a USB stick and instructions on how to set up a seven-part installation. Most of the drawings are on the back of cut up brown paper Woolworths bags a big supermarket franchise in Australia.
The artwork/ installation is called: “I sent the Dalai Lama a New I Pad Still in the Box a Few Years Ago, so this Installation is Called: an Apple for the Teacher/ The Dalai Lama is my Teacher. “
- Four videos on a loop on I Pads mounted on four I Pads, mounted at eye level; silent. Videos found on USB stick.
First: “Altruism”, its rationale;
“I am going to have kind thoughts towards others, I am not going to get angry or think badly about others. I am going to benefit others as much as I can. Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive. “
Dalai Lama
I love this quote by the Dalai Lama and I feel his sense of genuine altruism towards all people and plants and animals and marine life is the key for this beautiful blue planet lasting forever. However, I also feel international trade can bring world peace particularly between China and America. That was the idea behind this video and photos. In the documentation is a Chinese TEMU cart and it’s filled with American branded Converse shoes. In bringing these together I think it’s an example of bringing these countries together. I also like the branding on the shoes: Converse All-Star as I feel no person is an island and everyone is part of a community.
In the video I am wearing brown Converse high tops, black Levis jeans, a brand-new white Kmart t-shirt and Billabong/Wrangler mustard colour hat, black swatch watch, rosary beads and Tibetan beads.
Another example of how trade makes world peace between America and China in particular is the brand Apple. Apple is an iconic American brand and one of the biggest companies in the world yet the manufacturing place is a whole town in China. This definitely brings not only these countries leaders together but also all their countries people too. This video and photos and the accompanying essay were all made with Apple products: a I Phone for the video and photos and MacBook Air for the essay and Word program and I Movie for video editing.
Perhaps stronger trade links in the worlds global community shall not only bring world peace but also greater prosperity for all to fund the enormous task of saving this beautiful blue planet forever as that shall be the biggest task that humanity has ever faced and shall take great amounts of money, brainstorming, a strong global community and tenacity of spirit.
I always try to have a balance of strong male and female role models and my favourite female role model at the moment is the late Australian Saint Mary MacKillop.
“Be eager in your desires but humbly patient in their accomplishment.”
Saint Mary Mackillop
I also feel the other major problem in the world that needs addressing is overcoming poverty in the world and not only in the developing world but for overcoming homelessness in wealthy countries too.
In conclusion I feel the biggest problems facing not only humanity but the whole planet is world peace, strong trade, overcoming poverty and saving this beautiful blue planet forever. Today I feel I am the Dalai Lamas, and Pope Francis’s loved kitten.
Second; I Pad video “Spaceman”, (full name; “I am the Dalai Lamas Cat. How Can We Make Global Poverty History? If We Can Land Man on the Moon, We Can Eradicate Global Poverty.”
Its rationale:
“Wherever it occurs, poverty is a significant contributor to social disharmony, ill health, suffering and armed conflict. If we continue along our present path, the situation could become irreparable. This constantly increasing gap between the haves and halve not’s, creates suffering for everyone.”
The Dalai Lama
The video is inspired by this quote by the Dalai Lama where I was wearing a space suit on my local beach reading a book of drawings with text. As it says in the title of this work that if we can land a person on the moon then we can overcome global poverty.
Third; “Who wants to be my Han Solo”,
I dressed up as Chewbacca for this video my favourite character from one of my all-time favourite movies Star Wars. In the title I joked: Who wants to be my Han Solo? As I am looking for a friend to have adventures with. But maybe I have found that in my platonic friend and support work Yannick who is from Berlin but calls Australia home now with his loving family.
However, when I thought of this idea several months ago when I was in Sydney, I realised life isn’t like Star Wars where there is goodies and baddies. Rather the world’s people are more like the singer Regina Spektor whose music I have admired for years and bought most of her albums on CD and recently on vinyl with the album: “Begin to Hope” and recently I ordered the vinyl album “Soviet Kitsch” which hasn’t arrived yet.
The rationale behind this is that Regina was born in Moscow but now lives in America, New York I think where I think she has been accepted by the creative community in America and has fans all around the world including in Russia and America.
So, her music which ruminates on American and Russian culture which she has experienced and loved both can only do good to create harmony between the two nations. It’s an example of how artists can make peace in the world but not dogmatically but by bringing the realization of peace to the world gently.
“I’ve been thinking a lot about space. It was one of those slow-motion realizations of how little we are, how far we are from everything else in the solar system. This idea of distance started kind of haunting me. How do you go forth and accomplish things but not end up leaving everything you started out with in the dust? “
Regina Spektor
In the video and also photos I am dressed s Chewbacca and reading one of my books of original drawings with text: “Heroes, Influencers and Plain All Out Self Reflexive Diary.”
The book I am flicking through is a kind of red herring as I chose it at the last minute but is also about all sorts of creatives I admire and how they influence my creativity.
The director of Star Wars is George Lucas. I love this quote by him.
“The secret is not to give up hope. It’s very hard not to because if your, really doing something worthwhile I think you will be pushed to the brink of hopelessness before you come through the other side. “
Another element in this video is me at the edge of the Pacific Ocean that I have grown up with in Australia and there is much nostalgia around this for me as I was a keen surfer. It’s also a liminal zone which means the meeting of ocean and land and that’s something beautiful too.
Fourth: “Ocean Room in Kart.” Its rationale:
Full title: “Ocean Room in Kart/ If We Work together as a Local and Global Community Then We Can Save This Beautiful Blue Planet Forever/ Particularly if the World Leaders and International Think Tanks Put All Their Differences Aside.”
“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 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 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 eight 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 All-Star 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 explanation 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 explanation 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. - Two IKEA trestle tables side by side with one with the latest biggest screen Apple desktop computer with the “World Peace” video on a loop. The video is on the USB stick. Its full name: “World Peace and Saving the Elephants.”
Its rationale:
“Only through compassion and inner peace, can one spread peace in the world. Inner peace leads to a peaceful individual and then this peaceful individual can build a peaceful family, then a peaceful community, then a peaceful world,”
Dalai Lama
I think if anyone can mediate peace in the world then it’s the Dalai Lama. My video and photos shot by Yannick Soyez are about the connection between world peace and saving the environment particularly the elephants which are an endangered species in Africa and Asia.
“There is mystery behind that masked grey visage, and ancient life force, delicate and mighty, awesome and enchanted, commanding the silence ordinarily reserved for mountain peaks, great fires, and the sea.”
~ Peter Matthiessen
I love this quote about the nobility of elephants. When I was in Pondicherry India over twenty years ago, I saw a beautiful elephant in the street and I felt happy as I knew that elephants in India are considered signs of good luck.
It might seem like a tenuous connection but if we look after the environment and animals, trees and plants in it then we also save the planet as much as having a peaceful community.
The second IKEA table is to have sixteen of the latest I Phones with all the “Thank you” video playing on a loop. Full name: “Thankyou: Simplify, Simplify and Simplify Again (Advice Only for Myself)”
“This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.”
Dalai Lama
As usual I started this short artist statement with a compassionate Dalai Lama quote. He is kind of my rock to lean on after the passing of my mum. This performance features me in blue Converse all-stars, black Levi’s jeans, a white Kmart t-shirt, a black Swatch watch a white bandana and mustard colour Billabong/Wrangler hat and Buddha stone bracelet and shot and edited with a I Phone, Mac Book Air and I Movie.
This performance is to say thank you to my friends from and in America, my Australian protectors, the CEO sponsors of the world peace game and the local and global community as I think you are all angels and saints. Thank you to you all for humouring, educating and guiding me.
In the documentation I am holding a box that has a black sharpie pen self-portrait with the simple words thank you.
The title about simplification comes out of my ten drawings a day project where I have been trying to de-clutter and simplify my life both in the outer world of my apartment and in my inner world of thoughts and emotions.
“Find happiness in making others happy. “
Mary MacKillop
I love this quote by Mary MacKillop and I agree whole heartedly that it’s in trying to make others happy that one finds happiness within one’s self. - Two big A) photos: The first: “Competing to be the Worlds Greatest Grandmother. “
Its rationale:
“Stop drawing yourself and use colour.”
My mum Maria
The title of this DVD is a mix up of the best beach performances mainly over the last few years that took centre place in my last solo show: “Competing to be the World’s Greatest Grandmother.” There is also a simple video of a small plaster building being washed over by waves. The video is silent.
“We can never obtain peace in the outer world until we make peace with ourselves”
Dalai Lam
The ideas in the video in many ways reflect my study of the Dalai Lamas philosophy particularly around compassion for all people and animals and nature.
I try to keep a sense of humour in my art mixed with serious issues so I hope my art makes others happy.
“All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle.”
St. Francis Of Assisi,
In conclusion as I always write one should choose one’s role models carefully as that is how one becomes. I try to have an equal mixture of female and male role models.
The second photo: A0 size: “If I Literally and Metaphorically swim Between the flags then I Will be Ok.’
Me and Yannick shot this video and the shoot was about literally and metaphorically swimming between the flags and over the years I have been rescued twice while surfing and swimming and so I have great respect for the surf lifesavers or clubbies as we affectionately call them in Australia. For foreigners the red and yellow flags are a section of the beach with paid and volunteer life guards watching this section of the beach and its pretty much impossible to get in trouble if you swim there.
Also, metaphorically I need to swim between the flags and be careful what I do or say and stay local as much as possible.
I have also tried to grow my mind with a ten: drawings a day project and mum always told me stop drawing yourself and use colour. So about three weeks ago I have stopped drawing myself and started using colour Mont Marte pencils, and cut up Woolworths bags mainly and thick and thin colour sharpie pens.
With the drawings I have been using lots of different quotes of past saint’s male and female and ruminating on their meaning for me.
“Patience is the companion of wisdom.”
Saint Augustine
I love this quote and feel I need more practise in being patient such as success with my diet.
“Love one another, bear with one another, and let charity guide you all your life. Find happiness in making others happy. Never see a need without doing something about it.”
Mary MacKillop
I love these quotes by Mary MacKillop and as I always say one should choose one’s role models carefully as that is how one becomes and also, I need an equal number of female and male role models.
“Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.”
Dalai Lama
I love this quote by the Dalai Lama and I feel I need to grow my kindness and treat everyone the same with that kindness as the Dalai Lama often says and does.
“The gifts of grace increase as the struggles increase.”
St. Rose of Lima
In conclusion my life is good as I live by the beach and walk on it most days and these days also swim there too: always in the flags. I find that beach walking empties my mind and grounds me. I also love the local beaches for my video art and photo shoots with Yannick and these outlets of creativity bring me great joy. To unwind at night time I do movie marathons and at the moment a Star Wars movie marathon on Disney Plus. Also sort of as an after-thought I chose the C3P0 mask as I am sort of a weird cyborg droid who is a bit awkward and metaphorically translates all sorts of languages.
AO spaceman photo in a white frame: Full name: “ I am the Dalai Lamas Stray Cat. If We Can Land Man on the Moon then we can Overcome Global Poverty.” - The rationale for this photo is the same as the video on the I Pad in part 1.
Image two. Imitating the Dalai Lama, full name: “Literally Trying to Become the 15th Dalai Lama a Video Beach/ Photo Shoot by Yannick Soyez”
“Old friends pass away, new friends appear. It is just like the days. An old day passes, a new day arrives. The important thing is to make it meaningful: a meaningful friend – or a meaningful day.”
Dalai Lama
In this photo I am dressed as the Dalai Lama reading a book of original drawings bound in a red book titled: “Literally Trying to Become the 15th Dalai Lama.”
I was wearing brand new blue Vans shoes. I really love the Dalai Lama a lot and my mum taught me not to play favourites but I have a particular soft spot for the Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu and Pope Francis.
“We must restore hope to young people, help the old, be open to the future, spread love. Be poor among the poor. We need to include the excluded and preach peace.”
Pope Francis
The former compassionate Australian PM Kevin Rudd did a lot for Australia including making Sorry Day.
“Australia is a nation of compassion. Courage and compassion. And the third of these great values: resilience.“
Kevin Rudd - Blue neon: 4m long Helvetica Neve font.: An “Apple for my Teacher/ The Dalai Lama is my Teacher.”
- Best ten drawings framed with a 2cm border and white box frames chosen by Tim Cook.
In conclusion I shall be an Apple fan for life and looking forward to getting the latest I Phone this year in a few months. I have lost count how many boxes like this I have sent out to different people and galleries but perhaps around sixty over the past four years. I sent the most to the Dalai Lama. I wish I could meet you for coffee Tim and find out about your life story.
Cheers Luke Foster