Travel and Exploration

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Travel and Exploration

Exploration is a search whose main objective is to discover information or the resources that would provide information. Some of the major explorers include Francisco Pizarro who explored the lands below Panama and Christopher Columbus who discovered South and North America though he believed that he was exploring Asia. Travel involves the movement of people or animals across two geographically distant locations. It is the travels that caused the movements and settlement of people both in the old and new times. For example Africans travelled to America as slaves and later on settled there.

My artwork is a replica of a primary source that most explorers found as they were conducting their exploration activities. A primary source is a source containing original materials. These materials have not been altered or distorted in any way and are still the same as they were found by the explorers. The artwork contains two major aspects. First of all, there are feathers in the diagram. Explorers are keen on such details when they are scouting around. Presence of feathers in the ground could portray a lot of ideas. The ideas range from existence of life forms that had feathers covering their bodies most likely birds to the existence of a community that has stayed in that piece of land that used the feathers in maybe carrying out cultural practices of making of clothes to cover their bodies. Some communities also used feathers to administer medication and some even used it as part of the ingredients so the feathers may portray the advancement in medicine from such barbarism to the modern kind of medicine as we know it.

The explorer, with the help of a zoologist and an archeologist, will then use the feathers to find out which bird they belong to. The patterns and structure of the feathers will enable the zoologist identify which bird they belong to. The feathers are blue in color so this would help in narrowing down the search to birds with blue feathers only. Archeological experience will then be used to carbon date the feathers and find out for how long have the feathers existed. This information can then be used in understanding history as various missing pieces of the puzzle would then have been patched together. Various theories have been echoed by explorers for instance Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution. These theories are developed from primary materials such as the one included in the artwork and they go a long way towards helping the human race grasp their history better and use it to shape up their futures.

The theme of travel is also developed in this piece of artwork. At the margins of the feathers exists sand. Quick question, what is the first thing regarding travel that pops up on your mind when you see sand? Sandy beaches? The sand thus helps develop travel as a thematic concern as it fills the mind of the art viewer with ideas about travel and the pictures keep streaming in to their minds.

In summary, the artwork I have presented conveys the theme of travel and exploration. The piece of art is a replica of a primary document that was used by the explorers in coming up with ideas about our past. The material also sparks out ideas about travel and puts the viewer in a travelling mood.