Scroll down to find a description of individual pieces or series of work.
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BOUND
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GROWTH
REFLECTION ON GROWTH: The act of remembering is to bring the past into the present and experience it in terms of a new time frame. This gives new life to the remembrance, and opens up the possibility for change. Growth implies life, multiplicity, change- a change of state or condition. By implying life, growth also implies death, aging, an end to expansion, and a final change of state, which can be fixed as a single moment in the memory.
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COMMENTARY 5
BOUND
Charcoal drawing on paper with mixed media frame. This is part of a 2-part piece entitled Bound/Unbound, a before-and-after style self portrait.
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GROWTH
This piece is composed of 20 separate bricks and 2 pieces of chain which are assembled on the floor. The image is a photo transfer affixed to the bricks.
REFLECTION ON GROWTH: The act of remembering is to bring the past into the present and experience it in terms of a new time frame. This gives new life to the remembrance, and opens up the possibility for change. Growth implies life, multiplicity, change- a change of state or condition. By implying life, growth also implies death, aging, an end to expansion, and a final change of state, which can be fixed as a single moment in the memory.
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COMMENTARY 5
Each and every element of this piece is part of a commentary on art, politics in art, and the business of art in the contemporary world. This piece is derived from Kandinsky’s masterwork Composition V from 1911.
The artist’s commentaries are listed below.
1. John Lennon. Artist as superstar or superhero. Is the public persona of the artist inflated in order to promote widespread adoration from the masses, thus raising the price of his work??
2. LED: this can be programmed at will to allow the artist (myself) space to rant about whatever seems appropriate at the time.
3. Coins. Today’s art market is more about money than it is about art. That may seem inevitable to some, but how much does this actually shape the art that we see? Quite a lot I imagine, as the ‘creators’ produce more of the art that sells, thus having a homogenizing effect on the art that the public is fed.
4. Beads for the Natives. This is like the old trick of giving beads of little value (for the Europeans) to the natives in exchange for food or land. It was an intentional rip off. I get the impression that today’s public is being fed works by artists whose persona (and the price of their work) is inflated to the max.
5. Symbols. One of the major themes of this piece is originality vs. reproduction in the art world. Everyone copies everyone to some degree. Post-modern art is sometimes little more than flagrant plagiarism. In fact, this piece is an example of such “borrowing”. Prosperous artists in search of inspiration often rehash some of their past successes. In this instance I have copied myself :).
6. Tapiès. The ubiquitous cross. If it works for him, maybe it will work for me too! 7. Spider. The weaver of webs, magic tales of entrapment: both the artist and the marchant fit this description.
8. Anti-anti-Burka Art. Enough tugging on Western Civilization’s heartstrings with tragic fashion woes. The Burka theme has been played out ad nauseum. By placing the image of the burka in the piece I am perpetuating the problem. My real protest is against artists whose use a picture of something (a prostitute, for example) to protest against that very same thing (prostitution in this case). If you don’t like it, don’t exploit it!
9. The Screamer. After pausing to scream on the bridge, the artist dejectedly walks home. Another letter of rejection.
10. Coca Cola. This bottle means a lot of different things to different people. Here it is used as in the film “The Gods Must Be Crazy”, as a symbol of the value of an object. In this film the bottle has great value because it is unique amongst the peoples of the bush tribe that find it. It represents the ‘original vs. reproduction’ in art debate, and the concept is reinforced by “borrowing” one of Andy Warhol’s silk-screened coke bottles, an image which has been reproduced thousands of times. It also prompts us to question how the marketplace manipulates our own ideas on the value of an object.
11. C’est ne pas une pipe. Magritte’s observation was correct, and is still meaningful today. I borrowed this phrase to announce the fact that this piece is a commentary, a statement of opinion and not a work of art. It is an inside joke, as I have often felt that most artists should express their political thoughts by writing letters to the editor, and choose more meaningful themes for their works of art. I have gleefully broken my own rule.
12. Graffiti. Graffiti is a popular new art form, and I decided to use it as graffiti artists tend to do – by writing on top of another person’s message.
13. Zebra Stripes. Design vs. ‘Art’, the great divide. Everybody knows that designers and illustrators are mere craftsmen, not artists...
14. Diamond Skull. Another take on the theme of value and the art object, in a direct reference to the work of Damien Hirst. This is also a comment on the skill level of many contemporary artists. The artist conceives the piece, the craftsman executes it.
15. Potato Eaters. The meager repast shared by the peasants in this Van Gogh drawing symbolizes the fare of the everyday, run of the mill artist. The ‘meat’ is reserved for the superstars.
16. Adam and Eve. Banished from paradise, they are forced to survive on their own. This scene is repeated in the lives of artists who are abandoned by their marchants, or, in the lives of the Spanish gallery owners banished from ARCO.
17. Composition 5. The masterwork by Kandinsky expresses his striving to find to deeper meaning in art. This piece is homage to his ideals.
18. Decorative Frame. This type of frame is used exclusively for great works of art, which contradicts the artist’s statement that this is not a work of art. Hmmm.
19. Marketing. It’s all about marketing. Marketing is everywhere, even when it is invisible you will find evidence of its presence. The careful observer will find marketing everywhere in this piece.
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re.production
Description: 10 rows of 7 CD boxes are mounted on a fiberglass panel. Inside each box is a CD with a printed label. All of the labels together form the image of a human fetus. Transparent vinyl is affixed to the outside of the boxes, and forms the image of a plant stem. The area on the outside of the boxes around the fetus is painted black. To the left are 2 columns of 10 CD boxes with charcoal drawings on paper inside the boxes. The work should be mounted on a wall painted black or dark gray.
re.production is a reflection on the dichotomy ‘original vs. copy’ in the digital age. When an item (image, sound, video, etc) is reduced to a code it can be reproduced faithfully millions of times, and in so doing the physical item itself loses value and the coded information becomes valuable.
Human reproduction, for the moment, is a different case. However, the human genome has been mapped, paving the way for designer children or human clones, amongst other possibilities. The ethical issues that this technology raises are sure to generate great controversy in the near future.
In the installed version, the panel at the left is an expression of angst at the dehumanizing concept that we humans are no more than a code.
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Dressed to Kill
Dressed to Kill is a reflection on the dark side of sensuality. The juxtaposition of flesh and fingers with metal and rose thorns evokes a sense of danger- luxurious, sensuous danger. The story is told, in part, by the use of various materials and textures. An uneasy tension is created by the image in the digital collage, and emphasized by contrasting black velvet and textured aluminum.
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Find the Answer Within
Contents: 15 transparent balls made of polyester resin approximately 4 x 6 cm, 4 small sticks made of polyester resin approximately 12 x 1 cm, 3 glass balls, 1 stone, white sand, 1 black glass plate. Each of the transparent balls has symbols or cryptic writing inside.
Installation: All of the items are arranged in the glass plate, which has a thin layer of white sand at the bottom. The plate is displayed on a pedestal, with spotlights illuminating it from above. This piece is interactive – the spectator is encouraged to pick up and examine the items, to look at the ‘messages’ inside, rearrange the items, etc.
Concept: The piece is part of the Secret Alphabets series. In this series the artist explores some of the aspects of the symbol: symbol as message carrier, symbol as abstract form, symbol as a mark of identity, etc.
Like a fortune teller that sees the future in a crystal ball, the spectator sees what is inside the balls, but may not know how to interpret it. However, by relaxing the mind and allowing the message to penetrate into a deeper level of consciousness, one can comprehend the meaning, for the answer lies within each one of us.
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Sign Language
This series uses images of the hand and flowers to depict inner emotional states which lie unexpressed under the surface of our daily social exchanges. The careful selection of different materials: wood, velvet, glass, etc. to create surface tension, the simple compositions, and the subtle irony of the titles combine to tell the story.
Original Sign The four original hands are pure and their meaning is clear, but during the course of conversation the meaning flips and becomes distorted.
Null and Void Feeling dull and inadequate, invisible, empty and black, while everyone else is lively.
Domestic Harmony The two hands with flowers appear loving and generous, but the black on black and sharp barbs of broken glass tell of unspoken aggression.
Illusion of Paradise On the surface everything appears idyllic- a velvety smooth conversation. But under the pleasantries a virus map seethes, indicating the poisonous feelings which are not expressed.
Meaningless Lots of fanciful words may seem impressive, but don’t cover up for lack of content. The empty wall shows through the transparent vinyl on glass.
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