Beth Carter Bell’s exhibit “Diaphanous Vision” comes to the Sidney & Berne Davis Art Center

This is Gulf Coast live arts edition from WGCU I'm John Davis. Thanks for joining us. Southwest Florida based artist Beth Carter Bell has a new exhibition coming to the Grand Atrium Gallery at the Sidney and Berne Davis Arts Center in the downtown Fort Myers River district. Titled Diaphanous Vision works in the show examine the existential nature of life itself and reflect the artists response to climate change, the proliferation of artificial intelligence, and other crises that could irreparably harm or even end humanity. Diaphanous vision is more than a simple environmental art exhibition. It's grounded in a much broader concept that humanity, our very species, is in need of a cultural evolution or cultural upgrade that places our relationship with all life on earth. At the center of how we live and what we create. And this exhibition represents the latest stage of what's called the Data A art movement or philosophy or Data, a esthetic which again places life itself as the essential element and reference point for art. So whereas traditional art can represent nature, environmental art advocates for nature. Data art attempts to create an actual relationship between art people and living nature. Beth Carter Bell has been studying and living this esthetic for nearly two decades now. Her previous exhibitions with the Data esthetic include AI Earth, which exhibited at the Sidney and Bern back in 2020. She was also a contributing artist to a group exhibition at the Sidney and Byrne in 2022 that also included works with other Data artists, including her longtime partner and teacher Tiité Baquero And Sidney and Byrne Davis Art center exhibition curator Cesar Aguilera. Another collaboration with Aguilera in 2015, titled The Chalice and The Messenger, won the Byrne Davis Choice Award. And Beth Carter Bell joins me today for a deeper dive into the show. The Data A philosophy, and this is all coming just ahead of the opening reception for Diaphanous Vision. That's going to be tomorrow evening, starting at 6:00, and the show will run through September 24th. Beth Carter Bell, welcome to Gulf Coast Live Arts Edition. Thank you for having me, John. I'm very excited to be here. Well, let's just start with the title. What does diaphanous vision or Translucent Vision mean to you, and what do you want visitors to see that they might not ordinarily see? Well, it's basically what you would think diaphanous means it's a transparent vision I'm trying to share with humanity. It's a vision which, actually, humanity can come in and connect with life itself. A lot of the works are, will be that are represented will be different plants and herbs from our culture. And, humanity will actually come in and stand next to the plan and view the work up on the wall. It's like an altar. And, the work will actually reflect back what the plant itself believes, that the energetic image that the plant itself believes that it has to give to back to humanity. So it's a it's kind of kind of, breakthrough exhibit where actually nature is speaking directly to humanity. And, you know, again, this deals with, I mean, the works of art you've created are very beautiful, but this is centered around some pretty heavy themes. When you began putting this exhibition together, what crises were you looking to respond to? Well, I believe the biggest crisis that I was going to need to respond to is, there are so many, so many people that believe that climate change and global warming do not exist. And, might my typical through the dead, a esthetic through studying nature has found, a form called compounded environmental global effect. And that is actually coming as a response from what humanity has done to our planet. There's over 200 things simultaneously affecting our planet. Air pollution. I mean, there's the number you you'll see there's an installation there that has all of those 200 plus things listed. But all those are affecting our planet simultaneously. And most people only talk about global warming and climate change, but even AI and and other issues have come in, and we need to address them and bring more balance insufficiency to the to the picture. Can we take a little, detour and talk specifically about that installation piece that you have in the show that you were just referencing? Sure. Because I standing before it is overwhelming Beth. You know. It's it's, because, you know, it's not just the, the environmental things you were just talking about. You know, as far as global warming, ocean acidification, all of that, but also cycles, psychosocial challenges, things like, you know, the decline of the family structure. It's so much. But then when you walk inside, what happens? Well, there's kind of a transformation. Once you walk inside, there's a sculpture. It's a very small circular room that's been created. It's kind of like a womb. And, there's a spiral sculptural piece that has all 18 of the plants that are represented in the exhibition. They come in as stewards, basically to partner with the person in the room. You come in to the silence, the quiet and, but also there's colors too. So, it's it's more of a, translation into actually being in the present moment and connecting with the natural world feeling, feeling the energy, seeing the colors, smelling the smells, using all your senses, which a lot of us have a hard time doing nowadays with how our world's going. Yeah, I think you've hit the nail on the head with that. I mean, because when I experienced it, it wasn't even complete yet, and I was getting what you were talking about there. But let's talk a bit more just about the Data. A and I hope I'm saying that. Right. Or Data A, I don't know if you have a preferred pronunciation. I say I say Data a Caesar says Data a but however you pronounce it is just fine. I'll say it how you say it. I just don't think many of our listeners will have been familiar with this term, with this philosophy, with this movement, and because of this. Yeah. Can you just tell us a little bit about what what Data A is? Well, Data A is an art movement that, maestro Tete Pecurro started. Well, he's been working on it for 68 years. And, but the movement actually was launched back in 2012, and, and we had ambassadors Tete also has a peacemaker project. So we had all the ambassadors that were in place from, well, we have 30 nations right now that we're in, but there were probably 16 ambassadors here, and they were present for the launch of the Data A movement. And these artists believe, in the Data movement, which is creating art about life itself, being the art. So, that is really what we all are working towards reconciling with nature, creating art with nature and with life itself. And it's it's a new scope to, to, to to have the art move through. And I think is important for humanity to be able to start doing that. We're so disconnected from the world nowadays. And, we, we have to have a cultural revolution. We need that change to be able to step outside, put our feet on the grass, feel the earth, let the earth speak to us, let all of, all of nature around us speak to us. And so that's really what this movement is about. It's about reconciling with nature. And there also, the movement speaks to we've had to address AI coming in there. It's really a trifecta between in order for us to help our planet. It's a trifecta. It's human nature, nature, large and AI alternatives that there needs to be sufficiency, balance and all that in order for us to protect life on our planet and avoid a large extinction event. Yeah. So I think a pivotal story I'm going to ask you to tell that I think will help people understand the Data, a esthetic more clearly is a sculpture friendship century. Tell us what this sculpture is and what happened. Well, today's sculpture, the Friendship Century, was part of a large project that he did. He had, different sculptures around the globe, says the Caloosahatchee River. And it was for, project called Earth Gallery one. And these sculptures went up 20 years ago and it they were century type sculptures where they had sayings on them and, and the, the friendship sculpture in particular spoke to, humanity having a relationship with nature and, and and let's do it type of thing, having a friendship and love for nature. And 20 years later, the Osprey came in and built a nest in this sculpture. Life itself came in. They had they had made booths in this sculpture and it was a partnership. There was magic to that, that here, you know, he made a statement 20 years ago in the arts race came in and created a home for their children. And, it was just a miracle, really. It was lovely. Yeah. There's something almost paradoxical about that story. Like, you know, Tiité makes the sculpture depicting nature. Then nature essentially takes over the artwork years later. Did you begin to think of the osprey nesting on the sculpture as, as part of the artwork itself, as that art. Of course. Yeah, of course, because that is the history behind that. Data A actually the nature, the nature comes in, in is the art along with the art that we create. So it is a reconciliation. It's a collaboration. So that's what Data A art is really about. And actually go ahead. Oh no, I was just going to say this seems like it's so much bigger than an artistic philosophy, since it is about the nature of life itself. And, you know, if you're talking about the huge things we as an entire civilization, as a species need to do to avoid a mass extinction. I mean, it's going to take more than an artistic movement. This is so much bigger than that. Well, actually, Data is an esthetic. So it's not it's it's much more than that. I mean, all different areas of, of our, of our world government, science, industry, religion, all those can take on the Data-A ascetic and, and pursue it through their avenues. So it is not just an art movement. We could actually incorporate it all into to all of our cultural institutions. If we do accept this premise that humans are simply one part of a larger living system, what would have to change about the way we live from, you know, economics, development, technology, even politics? Right. Well, I've I've been on this path for 18 years, and I'll tell you, it's an easy path to walk, because of how. Yeah, because of how our culture has developed and what we've been taught from generation to generation. But I can tell you from my experience that you can make the connection with nature. You can watch your steps in what you're doing to make sure that you're not having yourself or anyone else, including all of life on the planet. It's, it's amazing when you start living that way. There's a lot of joy that comes into your life. And, and, and your worldview, your, you know, your universal view gets much wider than than before. Do you think it's a harder way to live? Or in some ways, it's more liberating, or maybe both? Oh, it's for for me, it was very liberating, very liberating. I feel like we're prisoners with our culture and what we've been taught. And living this way is, way more liberating. I'm a seeker. I love to learn things. And, I've always been a seeker. So for me, this was just the natural next step to go down because I was already communicating with nature. But it's it's fun to experience because we really don't know much about nature when we think about the different species or how they communicate, how they live. You know, we're pretty much set in our human ways. And what I've found also is that the rest of the natural world has ever produced an ounce of garbage. We are the only species that does that. We are the only species that, that harms one another in the way that we do all the other species harm, dealing with territory or food. That's it, you know? Yeah, yeah. So, it's a new consciousness for people to take a look at. But once you start living that way, you'll see there's so much joy and, so much joy in. And just, you feel free or there's it's expansive, really? Yeah. If I could pivot a little, I'm curious about what Data A has to say about our relationship with technology. Like, I mean, not to put words in your mouth, but I would assume that you're not really thrilled with the way AI is proliferating right now. It's not really very controlled. We don't know how to do it without using massive amounts of resources like water and electricity. But is AI necessarily a threat, or could it become part of this cultural upgrade? Well, that is that is what at first I will tell you, I was having a hard time with AI being an artist because it, a lot of times it is replacing people's jobs. But as a, as teacher and I sat down and really took a look at it, it's not going anywhere. Right. And so we've got to be able to find the balance of it, of using AI, having it be in our lives. We also need to find balance with the resources that the AI is using. And so that's another conversation that needs to be had. And we all need to partner with each other on it. And I think that that I can be helpful, you know, I can help with all the things that are happening on the planet as far as climate change, air pollution, all that I can help with that. Yeah, I can help with wars, even if, you know, it ultimately would be great if we didn't have any wars in the world. But I can help with that. But we we have to have it. I was actually human developed, so human humanity can get involved in that. Yeah. When it comes to non artificial intelligence, digital tools, is that an essential element of your artistic practice. Yes. It is most definitely. Tell me a bit about how you create your you know I mean I know there's the big installation but then there's the beautiful two dimensional pieces all along the gallery wall. What's your process for creating those? My process is, I'm a visual person, so I take a lot of pictures. I think that my, my photo bank is probably about 3 million photos or more. So, every day I'm taking pictures of life of flowers. I mean, anything that I come across that I'm interested in, I take snapshots of that time frame. So I utilize those photographs. I make sure in a program I have them printed out to create a work, and then I paint on top of it. And then, we use car varnish and other things to secure the, the ink and all the paint and everything. So it's a, it's a, it's kind of a technology. I use technology for that. But I've kind of developed this concept of myself and, it's, it's a joy to work with really. And in those pieces in this exhibition assemble that we see, you know, repeating is, is the symbol of a heart. And it often seems like it's emerging from like the chakra of someone's forehead, you know, and, and Hindu traditions. That's like symbolizing intuition inside perception, beyond ordinary sensor experience. Am I on the right track with my interpretation? Yes. Okay. You are correct. I am, when you look at nature, nature actually operates from a heart consciousness versus humanity. We operate from from our mind. And, that it was important to me to have the heart consciousness reflected in these alters. So that's why those frames are our big hearts. And there's hearts on the on the works. Because if we can make that shift to a higher consciousness, our lives would be much different. There's also a symbol on the works at the bottom. It's called the Earth symbol. And I did the AI Earth project back in 2020, where I gifted that symbol to the world so that businesses and institutions can utilize it. Any artist really, as long as they respect and understand what the symbol is and the AI or a symbol means that you have respect for life on the planet and that you are Earth itself. I am AI Earth and everything that encapsulates what's living on our planet. So that's why these pieces are somewhat like altars. They're homage. We're we're paying homage to these beautiful plants and to life itself that come in to heal us in so many different ways. But a lot of times people don't even know what that plant will do to help them or to help the world. Many of them are feeding all the animals that we're eating. It's just amazing. Once you open up that doorway. Yeah. If someone walks into diaphanous vision, you know, knowing absolutely nothing about Data A and walks out understanding just one idea. What is that one idea that you would want that person to take with them? Oh, I wouldn't want that person to take, the beauty of connecting with the natural world and for them to know that they are nature themselves and that, once they connect with the natural world, you can't really go back, you can't really go back at all. So I would I would want them to connect with the natural world and, and, and to know that their nature, it's a simple thing. It's a simple thing to that I want for them. I mean, granted, I would like, you know, a lot more, right. But maybe just to start with that, maybe just, maybe once they leave the next morning, they wake up and they take their shoes off and go stand in the grass and connect with the planet and let the Earth feel you. And you can begin to communicate with the Earth. It's an amazing experience, really. That is about all the time we have for today's conversation. But I want to thank my guests. I've been speaking with Southwest Florida based artist Beth Carter Bell, going coinciding with Artwalk in downtown Fort Myers. A solo exhibition of her works, titled Diaphanous Vision, opens tomorrow evening in the atrium Gallery at the Sidney and Byrne Davis Arts Center. And for those unable to attend the opening reception, the exhibition will be up through September 24th. Beth Carter Bell, thanks so much and congratulations on this exhibition. Thank you so much, John. It was such an honor to be here with everyone, and I look forward to seeing everybody tomorrow night. Come give me a hug. All right. And if you missed any of today's show, you can always hear episodes in their entirety on our website, WGCU.ORG/GCL, or subscribe to our podcast feed wherever you get your podcasts. Our show today was produced by yours truly with audio production by Matthew Krause and video production by David Oquendo For now, thanks for listening. I'm John Davis, this is WGCU FM Fort Myers, 90.1 WMKO Marco Island 91.7 FM, NPR for Southwest Florida.