ELEVATION is a multimedia art installation concerning the duration of consciousness. Like all of my previous installations, it has a multilayered approach and breaks down the concept into multiple parts open for examination. The reconstruction of the parts leads back to a more comprehensive idea. This is not the typical immersive experience of installation art. Usually, there is one object repeated many times. This is rather a few similar objects repeated in various ways so that each can in itself be broken down and the idea explored more thoroughly.
I've always had a compulsion of sorts to understand things at their core; everything from pets to people to the functionality of the universe. I don't just want to know, I think I need to know for, mostly inexplicable, reasons. I don't always like what I discover, but I always accept the truth of it because anything worth knowing is worth knowing truly. Otherwise, what's the point? Elevation digs into patterns of how consciousness functions, elements it requires to function, and so forth. It highlights distance, pattern, balance, and duality, among other things.
One of the materials I use in this show is straight from nature... rocks! Rocks represent grounding and retain the earth's memories. But more importantly, my son gifted me these rocks when he was little and had nothing more to give than the love in his heart and the rocks he collected. Love is also grounding and quite relevant to elevated consciousness. In art, there is always some degree of personal, emotional content. Rocks are among the lowest forms of consciousness, however, they contain our planet's history nonetheless. Within them, we can find elements, crystals, and fossils that all provide information about Earth's experiences.
Another main ingredient in Elevation is the use of industrial acrylic. I like the juxtaposition between nature and "man", as humans created plastic and it's not something randomly found in nature. On another hand, man is a part of nature so this becomes somewhat punny and I enjoy the humor in it. Some of the acrylic sheets are clear and their transparency speaks volumes of how so many patterns in life are hidden in plain view. They allow me to play with space and offer an air of illusion, as in the suspended works that appear to be floating in midair. They seem to defy gravity which is opposite the grounding rocks.
The gold thread throughout is symbolic of the richness of connection. Grounding is an essential element to humanity. We can travel as far as we wish in our exploratory fashions, but we must always keep a thread that binds us to reality lest we float away into crazy-town. Anyway, one of the big questions that has been bugging me since the death of Stephen Hawking in 2018 is, where is the sense in spending. a lifetime acquiring knowledge and experience if we just end?
It led me to thinking about the patterns in nature, within the functionality of the universe, and how they may reflect on our own functionality. When things die, they don't cease to exist, they merely change. Bodies decompose and get recycled into the earth from whence they came. But what of the parts of us we define as heart, mind, and soul? How do they get recycled? Energy is neither created nor destroyed, it is simply changed. What is our metamorphosis? A caterpillar morphs into a butterfly, and a soul into? Nothing? We currently think nothing, lol. I can't find the sense in that.
Elevation explores some aspects of this hypothesis: Beyond death, consciousness persists, albeit possibly in a different form than we have thus far imagined.
ELEVATION | M Galleries, Washington, NJ 07882 | 908.689.3414 | April 1-30, 2021
OPENING RECEPTION: 4.10 @ 2-9 pm | ARTIST TALK: 4.24 @ 12 pm Facebook Live Event
The gallery has opened its doors to the public once again! Let's not let Covid prevent us from exploring, learning, and living! I'd love for you to see the show and leave me a message about your thoughts!
Have a wonderful week! Plus tard! That's French for later, btw.
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