air
earth
water
fire
fifth element
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air |
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earth |
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water |
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fire |
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fifth element |
Régénération is grounded in the desire to fuse the social corps of culture and the corporeal body ofnature, using the symbols and matter that they spring from, in order to create a revisioning of our relationship with our world and with one another.
Matter matters. Substance signifies. Our experience is contingent on the physical world.
There can be no thought without an image. - Aristotle
The human propensity for classification and our inclination towards symbolism/metaphor are the fertile grounds I continue to explore in order to grasp a greater sense of the nature -nurture debate over humanity¹s elemental character. The bonds we fo
rm with our parents, the values that we absorb through the small moments and large events of our daily lives, our senses in touch with the tactile world, all these shape a sense of who we imagine we are. The gravity beneath our feet and the twisting chain of our DNA, both, have another strong pull on our sensibilities. According to Albert Einstein, our world view is basically determined by a sense of whether we view the world/cosmos as friendly or unfriendly. Yet, sadly, the natural world has become so completely foreign to most people¹s day to day existence and realm of experience. The artifice and artificial have replaced the substantive world.
The new branch of ecopsychology in the social sphere of thinking acknowledges consciously that we have reached a limit, the extreme boundary of how far we can distance ourselves from nature without losing ourselves and the very ground we stand upon. The nature - nurture question becomes senseless when we are standing on the brink of a self fulfilling prophesy of global annihilation. However somber the impetus, Régénération is not about loss, abandonment, alienation - nihilistic visions of an impending apocalypse. Rather, it is about a much older story- one of integration, balance, and hope. Gandhi said that we must be the change we wish to see in the world.
Seeking a course through both the vertical and horizontal planes, mapping out space with respect to the cardinal directions, using the elements to represent attributes of individuals and family dynamics, rendering the body Œspecial¹ in both form and matter, the careful accumulation of precious matter to put on Œdisplay¹, deliberately recycling images and objects from past works - these are the elements integral to my process.
The title Régénération is taken from a book that has been a constant companion over the last year. A Beginner¹s Guide to Constructing the Universe: The Mathematical Archetypes of Nature, Art and Science, by Michael S. Schneider, is a book that illuminates the world of numbers and brings continuity to my preoccupation with numbers/space. The fifth chapter on the number 5 considers, in large part, a particular fascination of mine - the Fibonacci numerical sequence and it omnipresence in Nature as a constant equation in the process of organic growth and renewal.
PROCESS AND EVOLUTION
Due to a last minute cancellation in the programming schedule, Régénération came into being. This project/process came together over a brief period of four and a half months and more than eighteen years. Often all one sees is the ³final product² of an exhibition; but Régénération is only in it¹s third stage of imagining, constructing, installing. How many future stages will be contingent on the response of the audience who will complete this cycle in its evolution.
I don¹t think it is necessary to know my family in order to get some sense out this work. What began as a metaphor on the elemental relationship between humans and Nature has grown, in my mind, to include a meditation on the relationship between fathers and daughters. Many women artists have explored the mother-daugther connection; yet the bonds between fathers and daughters are also a crucial influence in forging a woman¹s sense of self within the world at large.
The notion that a work of art is an irreversible process
ending in a static icon-object no longer has much relevance.Robert Morris