Daphne Woo 2A/06

This picture depicts a huge man-made water fountain standing impressively amidst the lush and thriving greenery. Imagine what will this beautiful scenery be like if all the natural elements involved are gotten rid of. Without the luxuriant greenery, the surrounding of the fountain becomes so bare and void without these leafy plants. Without the massive amount of water, there will be no endless gushing of water down from the top of the fountain which gives an overall, complimentary sense of life and vibrancy to the whole scene. Hence, without any plants and water (natural elements) to beautify it, this man-made fountain stands solemnly on it own with no colour and no life. It is just another ordinary piece of brown bare rock.

Therefore, this picture gives a clear portrayal of Man making use of the beauty of Nature to add on to the magnificence of man-made structures. Without the lush greenery and water, the beauty of the water fountain could not have been so beautifully displayed. Most importantly, this picture also shows the importance of the inter-dependent relationship shared between Man and Nature.

Similarly, Man will not have been able to successfully set up the wonderful urban space which we live in today without the help of Nature. Man shares an extremely vital interrelationship with Nature. The advanced technologies which we make use of will not be able to achieve their aim of providing a modernized living without the use of natural resources. Most importantly, without the use of natural resources, even the very basis of modernization (The Industrial Revolution) would have crumbled instantaneously. However, Man has not been “taking good care” of Nature. Instead, Man continues his constant exploitation of Nature’s resources and causes endless harm to Nature through human activities like pollution.

Thus, this picture can be considered to be a wake-up call for Man, reiterating the importance of this interdependent relationship between Man and Nature and that we should neither overlook nor deny this relationship.

This picture is a simple snapshot of the road. As we can see, the road is separated into two different colours – the upper strip is mainly green, whilst the lower strip is mostly gray. The upper strip appears to be a representation of Mother Nature with the green mosses growing on it, hence giving it its green appearance. Similarly, the lower strip can be said to be representing Man as it is afterall, a man-made graphite road.

Not only that, the thin line that more or less distinguishes the two different coloured strips can be interpreted as the boundary that separates Nature and Man. Hence, this picture acts as reminder to Man in alerting us about the boundary laid between Man and Nature. However, we should note this boundary does not mean that Nature and Man has to exist as two separate entities, sharing absolutely no relationship between them. Instead by bearing in mind that Nature and Man are interdependent on each other for survival, the main objective of this boundary is to ensure that either party does not step over the line and go overboard. In other words, neither Man nor Nature should not be crossing the boundary and attempting to gain control over the other.

In reality however, Man has been on his quest to gain absolute power over Nature through the years. Since the start of the Industrial Revolution, Man has been constantly making use of Nature’s resources in order to achieve his own selfish desires like having a more convenient and comfortable life. What made matters worse was that instead of sparing a thought for Nature, Man took these precious resources from Nature for granted and began to further exploit them.

Due to constant exploitation, these natural resources were used up so rapidly without enough time for them to be replenished. Hence, with this daily and increasing exploitation of the natural resources, Man is now witnessing the quick depletion of these resources. What a man-made crisis Man has created for himself!

Thus, this shows us that for those who try to step over the line and take control over something which does not belong to him, there will be no good end for him. Most importantly, he will have to pay the price and face the eventual disastrous consequences.

This shows a tree being surrounded by four wooden benches. It is also as if the tree is trapped and enclosed by four barriers, without any way of escape. By linking this to the rationale behind Romanticism, this picture can be interpreted as Nature being held captive by Man.

Likewise, Man has been continuously exploiting the resources of Nature to fulfil his desire of wanting a more comfortable life. Also, we should note that Man has not once gained the permission of Nature to make use of the natural resources (something that definitely does not belong to Man). Instead, Man has so unreasonably assumed that Mother Nature has given her consent and even, Nature rightfully belongs to Man. Thus, if such a self-centered control driven by the power of greed on Nature continues, it will only lead to the eventual depletion of natural sources and the destruction of Nature.

Therefore, a monochrome background colour has been chosen to further emphasize on the fatality of such consequences. The main reason being, these consequences on Nature will eventually have an even more serious and disastrous knock-on effect on Man. For example, by cutting down huge numbers of trees, we are destroying the natural rainforests. However, this indirectly leads to an increase in carbon dioxide present in the atmosphere which leads to an increase in global warming. Thus, the final victim of this whole vicious environmental cycle is Man, the very people whom first decided to cut down the trees.



Daphne Woo / 2A