Re - Create
As both a scientist and an artist, I have long been interested in the process by which a theory or work of art is created. When encountered, the theory or work of art is finished, done, with few hints as to its birthing. In my case it was often like throwing the individual pieces into the air, listening to them and reassembling them. In its creation, the artist has experienced the work as a living thing, responding to its needs and seeing its many possibilities. The final work exhibits idiosyncratic responses that arise out of the process. Some of these responses will give rise to further works in the series, but to me, the singular work will always be a conversation not a conclusion. Like an iceberg, the final work gives hints of the many alternative images hidden below the surface.
A Blown Away Leaf
A Blown Away Leaf is a monoprint made from carved Pink Pearl erasers printed onto handmade paper.
This installation of a 2D artwork and an accompanying video animation is intended to explore the notion of viewing both a final piece of art and the many alternative realities that inhabit the piece. The installation has both similarities and differences with the work of William Kentridge.
By digitally decomposing the image of the piece of art into its individual marks, I created images in which each layer is a unique mark in the piece. These are digitally recomposed into almost any combination or possibility. This is very different from a process in which the accumulation of the artist's marks is sequentially recorded as if one looked over the artist's shoulder. The animations exhibit ruminations and recapitulations that are not necessarily there in the original process of creation yet convey a musical language.
The musical score provides a temporal skeleton for the exploration of the creative possibilities. In some cases, e.g. “A Blown Away Leaf”, the music is suggested by the piece itself. Additional explorations many be viewed at my website listed below.
Three Drawings at the Edge
I made three drawings of the meeting of sky with a body of water at the horizon: The first just charcoal.
The second and third with using graphite in the sky:
And the third with a much darker sky. The three are meant to be hung with the horizon lines aligned.
The lines representing the water surface evoke the lyrical cello lines of a piece composed by Phillip Glass, The cello lines form the structure of the resulting animation Solo VI: The following animation explores what might have been:
Prelude in C
tantsn
I made this drawing almost 20 years ago with stenciled graphite on distressed paper. While working on the Re-Create animations in 2014, I received this duet recording of Bartok’s Wallachian Song. The eastern European composition painted a picture of jewish men dancing. Hence the Yiddish title: tantsn
Viewing the video a year ago, I wondered if the drawing were inverted - light forms on a dark background - if that would add another chapter to the existing video. The resulting exploration of the alternate realities in the creation of the original small drawing tell a story that I will let the viewer find: