CEO of Red Bull Franz Watzlawick
Am Brunnen 1, 5330 Fuschl am See Austria
From: Luke Foster
Dear Franz,
I am an Australian artist and writer and I am sending you a box of art as I am a huge fan of sugarless red bull and have around four a week to give me a lift when I’m tired.
There is a box of drawings mainly on the backs of Woolworths brown paper bags an Australian grocery franchise and sometimes I draw on the backs of Red Bull cardboard packaging.
There is, also instructions for an art installation: An art installation for Franz Watzlawick by Luke Foster: Title: Metaphorical Surfing, Cats Don’t Like Water but I am the Dalai Lamas Cat that Loved Surfing when I was Young.
The installation is in eight parts on eight separate diagrams on white envelopes and drawn with a black Artline 200 pen.
- Two IKEA wooden trestle tables with white tops. The first with a MacBook Air and Epson video projector projecting a video onto a wall of all the Red Bull sponsored surfers drinking Red Bull. The shot from the waist up. Ten seconds each with the ocean behind them. The second table the same as the first with a fridge on top made of glass with a lid on top with the audience to take one of many sugarless Red Bulls from the fridge.
- Two IKEA trestle tables again with wooden legs and white tops. Both with MacBook Airs again and Epson projectors both projecting videos onto the wall behind the tables. The first the video title Spaceman Luke mp4 looping and silent to be found on the USB. Its full name and rationale. The Dalai Lamas Cat. How Can We Make Global Poverty History? If We Can Land Man on the Moon. We Can Eradicate Global Poverty. This artwork features a video projection of the beach performance where I am dressed as an astronaut reading a book of drawings about the Dalai Lamas Buddhist philosophy and my own ideas about how humanity can eradicate poverty will be projected on a wall.
The following quote by the Dalai Lama captures the essence of the ideas in this work.
“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 second table with video projection: Who wants to be? Mp4: full name and rationale: Who wants to be my Han Solo?
I dressed up as Chewbacca 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 Europe but calls Australia home now with his loving family.
However, when I thought of this idea several years 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 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
The book I am flicking through in the video and photos 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.
In the end I left the video silent looping and ended up not using a Spektor song even though it was part of the rationale.
- Three A0 photos framed with white frames. The first from the USB: C3P0.heic and full title: If I Literally and Metaphorically Swim Between the Flag then I Shall 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 six months ago I have stopped drawing myself and using colour Mont Marte pencils, and cut up Woolworths bags mainly and thick and thin colour sharpie pens, Artline 200 black pens and black ink and brush and watercolours and brush.
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.
I was wearing a Swatch watch, blue Levis jeans, white linen Kmart shirt, white Kmart t-shirt, black converse shoes and gold c3P0 mask from Star Wars costume shop.
“Patience is the companion of wisdom.”
Saint Augustine
I love this quote today and feel I need more practise in being patient such as 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 this quote 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 but not recently but at a pool sometimes instead. 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.
The second photo on the USB title: Competing to be the Worlds Greatest Grandmother. Its rationale:
The photo shows me holding a box with a self-portrait of me and the word Thankyou above it drawn with thick black sharpie pen.
“Stop drawing yourself and use colour.”
My mum Maria
This is one of the last self-portraits I’ve done after heeding my mum’s excellent advice.
“We can never obtain peace in the outer world until we make peace with ourselves”
Dalai Lama
The ideas in this photo in many ways reflect my study of the Dalai Lamas philosophy particularly around compassion for all people and animals and nature.
“Find happiness in making others happy.”
Mary MacKillop
I try to keep a sense of attempts at 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 third A0 photo is titled Altruism Heic. on the USB stick. Its full name and rationale: Altruism: Trade Makes World Peace/ Saving This Beautiful Blue Planet Forever.
The photo shows me on the beach with a black TEMU cart behind me filled with black and white converse high tops and the text under it: Altruism: Trade makes World Peace and it was also made into a video.
“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 Allstar 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.
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 Robert Francis Prevost elected as Pope Leo XIV loved kitten.
- Best twenty drawings chosen by Franz and framed with a: 2cm border and white float mount box frames. Some on the back of Red Bull cardboard packaging. There is also lots of drawings on the back of Woolworths grocery bags an Australian grocery franchise. A lot of the drawings are about the Dalai Lama, the late Pope Francis and Saint Francis of Assisi and Mary Mackillop Australia’s only saint.
- A blue neon sign 4m long. In capitals Helvetica Neue font:
METAPHORICAL SURFING CATS DON’T LIKE WATER
BUT I AM THE DALAI LAMAS CAT THAT LOVED
SURFING WHEN I WAS YOUNG
- Glass vitrine cabinet with metal legs. 2m long and 1.4 m tall. At the bottom 20 straw hats with padding inside so they don’t get squashed and 40 sugarless Red Bulls on top. This is about you Franz and about how you as a CEO have many hats and that many cans of sugarless Red Bulls are at the top of this.
- World Peace and Saving the Elephants video in DVD format. In an installation room with the video projector on the ceiling and looping. The projection room with a plywood bench for viewing and room 5m by 12m. 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 can save the planet as much as having a peaceful community.
I think the Dalai Lama has sage advice on world peace and saving the environment with his Tibetan Buddhist philosophy.
In conclusion It’s very important to have peace in the world and to preserve the environment as they are both essential for the future of humanity and the livelihood for future generations of humans and animals.
- Two Ikea wooden trestle tables with white tops and each with a MacBook Air and Epson video projector. Each projecting silent looping videos on the wall. The first Red Bull sponsored surfers: longest tube rides edited together and the second Red Bull sponsored surfers, best airs edited together.
In conclusion I hope you like my drawings and installation plan even if you might have different ideas to me on some issues and I wish we could meet and have coffee and I have been to Austria several years ago and loved Vienna in the snow. Fantastic art galleries there.
Cheers Luke Foster
