The Natural Order: Sophie Green’s Newest Series
Contemporary artist and conservationist, Sophie Green, has released her newest series of work, The Natural Order.
After debuting her first piece in the collection, ‘Parliament’, Green has stated that she wants to focus on human behaviour - a first for the animal-focused artist. Green, who typically uses her photorealistic paintings to raise awareness and money for wildlife and conservation causes, said:
“Lately, my fascination has been more with humans; our quirks and social contagions, culture wars and habits.
I wanted to explore human nature through the allegory of the animal kingdom. I have always understood animal behaviour more than I have understood humans. Animals are intuitive and natural in their behaviours. For the most part, they act on instinct.
Through a satirical lens, I want to find animal behaviours that mimic the eccentricities of human nature. Each piece will have a fairly transparent title and the rest will be up to personal interpretation!”
The series will explore human nature and behaviour using the animal kingdom, creating a light-hearted way for the world to reflect on its behaviour.
It is a timely release, considering the current political unrest and division in the world, with huge political and social disruptions being played out on the world stage and reflected on social media.
Green’s second piece in The Natural Order series, Think Tank, depicts a tower of giraffes interacting.
“When I look at ‘Think Tank’, I hear the words of Charles Dickens’ Affrey Flintwinch ‘The clever ones are always putting their heads together’ and then later, ‘When the great members of the family had anything to settle among themselves, they called a family council, and the heads of the family put their heads together’ (of the Circumlocution Office).”
The ‘Circumlocution Office’ in Charles Dickens’ Little Dorrit is a fictional and satirical government department representing extreme, obstructive bureaucracy, where officials ensure that nothing gets done efficiently. It has become a general term for any slow, red-tape-heavy organisation that avoids responsibility. It symbolises the inefficiency, self-interest, and deliberate avoidance of work within British civil service, a concept still used to describe real-world slow governmental or large corporate bodies.
Green will be experimenting with different styles, techniques and compositions within her work.
“After spending 2.5 years painting large-scale pieces with the same style, the same composition and the same message, I’m looking forward to stretching out my creative muscles and creating some smaller-scale, experimental piece.”