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It starts simply enough, I’m on a walk through the city, in time, through space. I notice this amazingly beautiful moment, neither object nor image but a moment of visual intrigue; textures, movement, archive. It’s not in a museum or gallery, it’s
right there on the sidewalk, in the street, on the
wall, in the alley. These compositions, these records
of an event created by the wear and tear of the city,
the environment, the deterioration in time. Worn, weathered,
scratched, scarred, stained, and cracked, these elements
form a composition.
Does anyone else see this? Does anyone
else care? This is the instant when the aleatory*
becomes vital, upon being regarded. I want to remember
these events. I want to capture these unassuming
moments, this perfection in the imperfect. I engage
in a discourse with the urban landscape through my
interaction with the landscape. At times I’m recording
a piece of the cityscape; the surface of the work
is literally a relief of an urban site, a psychic
and actual archeological entity. I utilize the language
of found objects, of surface, and the interaction
between the formal, pictorial and sculptural. These
are the artifacts of detritus, which interact to
become a visual dialogue between image and event.
*aleatory and aleatoric - composition depending upon
chance, random accident, or highly improvisational
execution, typically hoping to attain freedom from
the past, from academic formulas, and the limitations
placed on imagination by the conscious mind. There
is a tradition of Japanese and Chinese artists employing
aleatoric methods, many influenced by Taoism and Zen
Buddhism. In the west, precedents can be found among
artists of ancient Greece, and later among artists
of the Italian Renaissance. Leonardo da Vinci (Italian,
1452-1519) recommended looking at blotches on walls
as a means of initiating artistic ideas.
-ArtLex Art Dictionary
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