Skeletal graffiti

photo for VPA104 assignment...

The aged etching of countless youths over the years into the bamboo attests to the intervention of many different people over a long period of time. Mixed with the old writing is newer graffitti, so the intervention is ongoing. This shows mankinds impact on the natural environment, how each individual chooses to affect that which lies in their vicinity. Graffitti can be seen as destructive or vandalism in many cases but other cases is can be a purely artistic mark on society.
The disjointed scarred wounds of young love and visitors into the bamboo does nothing to adversly affect the natural aesthetics of the plant. Instead they add texture, feeling. The knowledge of the history seen by this plant. Much like the rings in old tree’s that show its age,the graffitti upon this introduced species of plant shows that it too has weatherd the world for a long time.
Whilst obviously full of life via its vivid yellows and greens, the bamboo has the odd appearance of disjointed bones by natural design, further giving an aged air to the new plant. This balance of death and life correlates to human kinds affects on the natural environment. Whole forests are cut down in one area whilst in others whole preservations are set up to try and rebreed dwindling numbers in a dying species of animal or plant. So the tattooing of this plants youthful skin by human hands attests to interference by people, not just in this one plant but in the natural environment in general.
The tree is like a war veteran, proudly displaying its scars that have been won through many hard years of life, odd that the same species that would give it these scars also planted it long ago, and now take care of it as it is within a garden. This somewhat reflects human nature in a paternal manner, the faults in the child are seen as coming from the parents in many cases, or through bad parenting. In a sense, through lack of care the bamboo was given to the ravening scrawling hands of the many who pass through the botanical gardens, unprotected but living on.