Dr David Pearson speaks of art and biodiversity in Brazil and in Idyllwild
Dr. David Pearson gave a talk at the Idyllwild Public Library on Tuesday, January 14, titled “Protecting Biodiversity: the Pantanal of Brazil.” The Pantanal is the world’s largest tropical wetland, ten times the size of the Everglades, and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Pearson’s field of expertise is biotechnology, and although he has never traveled to Brazil, he has been interested in the Pantanal and projects to protect it for over 30 years. This interest began while he was living and working in Switzerland, when he met the artist Fifo Stricker at a gallery in Geneva. Pearson brought along several of Stricker’s works that he owns, including one that will be on display at the library. It is an aquarium-like 88-pound clear silicone slab embedded with fantastic and colorful metallic fish. Stricker made several of these, but this is the only one that did not turn black with time.
Pearson also brought a book of paintings by Stricker, published by the World Wildlife Foundation, that had a forward written by England’s Prince Phillip. The forward described Stricker’s work, which combines animals from Pantanal with machine elements, as “grotesque,” but concluded that “destroying the nature of Pantanal is even more grotesque.”
Pearson touched on the threats facing the region: cattle ranching, irregular and shorter wet seasons, poaching, fire, deforestation, pollution from agriculture and mining, and the poverty that afflicts the local human population, exacerbating these other issues. He related this to challenges we face here in California, and on a lighter note shared photos of Dore Capitani’s painted “Deer Sighting” sculpture in IDY park, which also combines animal and machine.