About the Art
This art is a combination of the concepts of urban isolation and our distance from Nature. With our endless buildings and comfortable living spaces, we have placed ourselves away from natural reality, by creating a false environment. Of course, we all get our tastes of nature... it is often (but not always) right outside our window. We seek solace in nature, by going on hikes and overnights and cruises and tours. But most of us could not survive on this planet without humanity's creations--at least most Americans are pretty much clueless on foraging, hunting, building adequate shelters, etc. etc... Actually funny I should mention that--because that so-called "primitive" level is how we started out, and yet we keep striving to make things easier and more accessible. But at the same time we are walling ourselves in, becoming dependent on our synthesized reality. Whether this is filled with more of the positive or of the negative varies with the people you ask... In my opinion, it's not necessarily and obviously a good thing. Thus, the creation of this work.

Each Stickperson is trapped in his/her own little cubicle, separated from all those around him/her by black, forbidding walls. All of these people live in the same "greenhouse," but of them, it seems that only two have actually been able to make a connection (the dark purple/red/blue tinted boxes in the upper right). Each person (except those on the outer edge--don't ask me why) has a little hole to the outside world, and could reach out through it if he/she wanted to, but the only one who could actually fit through is the infant (the central red-tinted box). [This is a cheesy reference to "the children are our future" floof, but doesn't quite work in this context, seeing as a baby couldn't really just escape into nature and survive... oh well.] Some of the Stickpeople are fascinated by their openings to the outside world, while others find themselves hopelessly distanced from the windows. The person in the central blue-tinted box has no window at all, despite not having a "window cubicle"--this pure isolation causes him to look up to the sky in utter frustration and despair. They are all locked away to their own devices--bending over backwards, meditating, holding out, pushing out, attempting to get to the person next door--perhaps comforted only by the sun's light, which shines through the greenhouse's vast windows. However, this may also be a source of the negative, for its heat ends up trapped in the greenhouse... without adequate "ventilation," the Stickpeople might just end up fried (an abstract take on the Greenhouse Effect here).

And so, the Stickpeople are safe in their haven... but are they happy? Probably not. Free? Undoubtedly not. But at the same time, I don't see the greenhouse as a completely immovable structure... Perhaps the Stickpeople can find a way to escape it, or at least alter it. A friend of mine saw the "windows" as little basketballs, and he suggested that the Stickpeople could use them to throw at the windows and smash their way out. Interesting... Another person asked if the plants were looking in at the people, or the people out at the plants. This artwork is particularly intriguing to me because it can be seen on so many levels and interpreted in so many ways... Ah, overload of mental material...

More on the theme of Isolation
I'm going to start off with something really confusing, just to be a meaniehead... but don't worry, the essence of it will be mostly cleared by the end of all of this, so hang on!

"Rock Concert Movement #237: Taking the audience on a Jungian journey into the collective unconscious by using the shadow as a metaphor for the primal self that gets repressed by the modern persona and also by using an underground setting in the labyrinth office design to represent both the depths of the psyche and the dungeon-like isolation of our increasingly mechanistic society which prevents people from finding satisfying work or meaningful connections with others" (Complex Rock Tour).
-CMP, Blue Man Group founders

Along the same line of thought...

"The real question isn’t whether we are dealing with a conflict between ancient and modern but why, in the course of human history, modernity is sometimes rejected: why it isn’t always seen as progress and as a welcome development" (168).
-Amin Maalouf

Indeed, why is that? Why is our progress not always a good thing? Why, in this age of improvement and wonder, do some draw back and say "waaaaaait a minute here"? This, is the essence of "elevare," and so I won't hesitate to dwell on it for a while (thus the numerous quotes on this page). The ways in which we are all vaguely connected, yet kept at a distance, are many, and often confusing. Take cities, for example. People live in giant cities with thousands of people surrounding them, yet at the same time can feel utterly alone...

"We imagine that the Blue Man is observing our culture, the way we interact, and the things we value. He also sees people staring out of their windows. He can tell that these people feel alone but this is puzzling to him. How could so many people living so close together feel alone?" (Song Bios).
-CMP, Blue Man Group founders

True human contact brushes by us day after day... You may exchange a smile with a clerk, or a passerby on the sidewalk--ah, a glimpse of truth! But at the same time, you usually keep walking, and move on your way. We do this all the time... come so close, but end up passing opportunities by, and settling into your own separate world.

"We wanted to capture the modern paradox of having access to millions of people through electrical current but still being cut off from any real human contact. ...It’s also about getting stuck in a pattern, becoming a slave to one’s job or perhaps more specifically, a slave to technology. Musically, we wanted to express the kind of quiet rage that can build up over time when people feel trapped, alone and unable to control their own destiny" (Song Bios).
-CMP, Blue Man Group founders, on their song "The Current"

Most of us end up on some sort of schedule and find ourselves pressed to follow it... or we find ourselves having to "keep up with the times" and abandon doing things the "old-fashioned way"--even if the old way gave us joy. For an undeniable example--the internet. We can do just about anything online now, erasing any real need to actually go out into the world and do things manually. We can talk, shop, explore, and create all at our purring laptops, and never have to leave the comfort of our homes. This can be a sort of freedom, for you are unbound... but at the same time, you are missing out on "real human contact" and the real world around you. It's 4:15 am and I have a half-dozen people online I can talk to... comforting and fun, but also false in a way. There is nothing like a face-to-face conversation. More elegantly put:

"It’s cool that people like Lefsetz have found a place where they can take off their masks but can we really say that creating a class of people who can only be themselves on the Internet is “progress?” Well, yes, we should acknowledge it as progress, but it seems pretty far from being a total solution.
...We’ve never felt that cyberspace will completely make up for the lack of community, connection, and authenticity that permeates our culture. The web has its moments, and elements that are truly exciting and Bob’s Newsletter is an example of something good that it has brought about. But in our view, the biggest contribution the Internet has made is that it has proven just how starved people are for things like connection, community and authenticity. We don’t think it adequately fills the void, but it helps point to what’s missing.
...Using the Web always seems to have this emotional duality to it, a tension between its promise and its limitations. It is truly a paradoxical medium; it gives you access to millions of people and yet it keeps you all alone. It can take you all over the world, but it keeps you inside. The Internet can make you feel closer to the primordial campfire that has been stripped away from modern life, but somehow you never get to feel its warmth. It’s a virtual fire" (Lefsetz).
-CMP, Blue Man Group founders

The realization that there is so much we are missing by being stuck in urban isolation is one that hits home... The internet reveals what we're looking for in the real world, for it is a pseudo-mirror image of life. Northrup Frye examines "The Motive for Metaphor" by presenting how a human being might deal with a deserted island...

"So you soon realize that there’s a difference between the world you’re living in and the world you want to live in. The world you want to live in is a human world, not an objective one: it’s not an environment but a home; it’s not the world you see but the world you build out of what you see. You go to work to build a shelter or plant a garden, and as soon as you start to work you've moved into a different level of human life. You're not separating only yourself from nature now, but constructing a human world and separating it from the rest of the world" (51).
-Northrup Frye

So we seem to be looking for a human world, one we can call our own. But have we gone too far? Has our human world, as opposed to the natural world, because more mechanical and technological than human after all? Have we boxed ourselves into seclusion and complexity, so that we end up just sitting back and accepting our lonely positions in the greenhouse?
But ah, we are not completely trapped... there are indeed things we can do to cope, perhaps even escape someday...