On entering the Institute
of Environmental Studies at the University of New South Wales, Sydney,
one is immediately confronted by a stunning brush and ink painted landscape
of eight giant panels. The tempo and rhythm of this striking painting
identifies it instantly as Australian, and yet the flavour is decidedly
Chinese. The title of the painting is "The Last Forest and The Lost
Forest." The artist is Andrew Lo: economist, writer, philosopher, teacher,
environmentalist and painter.
I taught economics with
Andrew Lo for thirty years at the University of New South Wales. Andrew
was, and is, an extraordinary teacher who is able to convey the message
that spiritual development and knowledge of the environment must take
precedence over all. You cannot paint the forest you observe (he would
say), but you must internalise that forest, and paint the forest inside
yourself: you must become one with nature. Nor can you understand the
mechanisms of the economy unless you have internalised the natural environment
that drives the economy. One should never romanticise trees and landscapes;
they cannot exist alone, but only exist as part of the whole. There
is a natural, all-pervasive, tempo and rhythm, a harmony, that holds
the natural environment together in an integral, ecological balance:
break that connection and you destroy the life sustaining forces that
drive our total wellbeing. If you ask Andrew who taught him he will
tell you: "the Australian bush".
And yet this same philosophy
pervades all of Andrew’s teachings, and paintings, and environmental
investigations. Andrew has himself discovered many new species of fauna
in his explorations of the Australian outback and the Australian bush.
Some of these species are named after him. Indeed Andrew’s excursions
with his economics students are enchanting, and they explore together,
teacher and class, the creeks and forests, the frogs and the birds of
the Wattagan Forest or Manly Dam’s pristine catchment. Andrew would
have his economics students clambering over rocks and creek beds into
the heartland of a nature reserve. He would show them an ancient species
of fish, and would catch a sample to show how it could use its fins
to climb past waterfalls and up cliffs. A climbing galaxia (he would
explain), a species that had been landlocked for hundreds of thousands
of years and whose evolutionary history stretches back to Gondwana land
itself. Back in the city, his students would proceed to revolutionise
sustainable development in the Manly Tourist Resort, and set Best Practice
benchmarks in other areas.
Andrew’s students will
all remember his extraordinary teaching. They have learned that there
was a unifying force that holds the economy and the environment in place.
They have learned humans must exist in harmony with nature. Andrew left
the University some five years ago to take up his now full time job,
and his first love, as an environmental artist. Andrew’s students themselves
are now in many parts of the world: in Australia, Malaysia, Singapore,
Japan, Europe, America, Hong Kong, the south Pacific islands. His students
now work in many different fields: economics, accounting, finance, marketing,
geography, science, or politics. None will have forgotten the lessons
of the harmony of humans, the economy, and nature.
Andrew’s paintings, also,
can be found in many continents and countries, in many galleries, and
in many private collections. As I explored "The Last Forest and The
Lost Forest" at the University of New South Wales, I was reminded that
Andrew Lo, through his paintings, is still reaching out to all, past
and present students alike, and reminding us all of this harmony and
oneness with nature.
