(Missed last week’s creative trigger? Challenge yourself to creatively respond to these squirmy fabrics.)
This week’s creative trigger is a poster by phenomenal artist Tomer Hanuka, whose page Tropical Toxic is one of my favourite things on Facebook. His art is bold, unsettling and incredibly intricate. This piece, a limited edition poster for The Thin Red Line, has been lingering on my mind for weeks. Full disclosure: I haven’t seen the movie, I’m just obsessed with this piece.
The contrast of this is phenomenally done. I wish I could reveal this poster to you from the bottom up, the delicate green grass and whimsical flowers parting to reveal a soldier on the brink of breakdown, ending with an ominous column of smoke rising in the distance, destruction looming over the entire scene.
The contrast brings to mind Conservation International’s message in this video starring Julia Roberts as Mother Nature: “Nature doesn’t need people. People need nature.” The dramas of humanity, the atrocities of war, the pain of trying to stay alive despite ourselves – these are all deeply irrelevant to the soft green blades of grass we walk upon.
Those little pink flowers explode with questions. Here are a few to get you going with your creative response – to me the poster stands alone, but if it makes you think of bigger questions from The Thin Red Line, that’s okay too. There’s no right or wrong way to respond to a creative trigger. Here are some thought starters…
Creative trigger points:
- How long has the soldier been there? Is he safe?
- He’s inadvertently watering the flowers – do you think they’re grateful?
- Is he heading towards the smoke, or away from it?
- The landscape around him is lush and peaceful. How will it look when the war is over?
- What does the scene smell like? Green grass, oily smoke, sweat-soaked uniform – what else?
How to Participate
My aim with the creative triggers series is to gather a community of creatives around a single prompt. So if you make things, from poems to pottery, you’re invited to take on the challenge of creating a response to this soldier among flowers. Post it online and tag me, or link your response in the comments below.
There are no rules, only experiments.
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