2007-01-07Ice cores
Perspex factory off-cuts, Acrylic colour inlay
50mm diameter x 10mm thick
2007-01-07Diatoms sea levels
Perspex factory off-cuts, Acrylic colour inlay
130mm x 130mm x 10mm (x4)
Layers of Perspex can make small theatres, or dioramas,
with illusions of depth (in space)
within which narrative gestures are performed (in time):
Life forms and air are trapped in the ice
and diatoms dance in the sea.
Amidst the flux of what Bergsons calls ‘real’, our minds can seek logical meanings.
By holding the pieces and turning them round you can play with arrangements of forms, making whatever sense of them you want.
I have made Perspex ice cores and layered objects before, but this time I am more consciously playing with how I can draw, and the viewer can make, connections between the forms.
Another difference is that this time I am animating alongside object making, and thinking and reading more about gesture and perception.
It feels like there is more clarity and playfulness in this work as I am trusting more to the improvisational process of gestural drawing as a kind of dance in space.
I have drawn the diatoms with eyes like Nolan’s Icare, which he designed for theatrical dance:
I wrote about this drawing in the Post, Revisiting Nolan.
The sea level rising data provides a ‘logical’ sea within which the creatures can be intuitively moved.
Drawing the diatoms like stick puppets held by invisible hands is an allusion to our hands in their destiny.
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Literature:
Ice core rings – Science Learning