Thesis

As described through my artist statement, my sculptures are reinterpretations, or rather reconstructions of reality as it is perceived through our mind.

In this context, I thought it to be appropriate to take the same structural approach to writing this paper, which will function as an in-depth exploration of my artistic intention, as I take to creating my work. I think that in this way the paper will better compliment the work, giving the reader a clear idea of the concepts which I am trying to give a sense of solidity through my sculptures.

After an introduction to my work through my artist statement, I will elaborate on some of the statements’ key elements, such as:

• the phenomena - its perception, as well as our experience of it;

• the concept of reality- with space, matter, time, and their derivative movement and progression;

• the notion of structure and order being the basis of reality;

• sculpture as a medium,

• line in space, as well as

• the human figure

Statement:

My art is about space and reality. It is the result of my search for an underlying structure of order in what seems to be ruled by chaotic complexity.

I work with two-dimensional line and transparent planes in a three-dimensional media, which seems almost contradictory. However, this process allows me to layer several different interpretations of a certain form, without concealing their existence from the viewer. Rather than merely treating the surface, I'm conveying the form's underlying spatial properties, such as its geometry, proportions, anatomy, and its curvilinear qualities.

I choose figurative representation not because of an interest in figurative narrative, but because the human form is of infinite complexity and subtle physical structure. The figure is not my "subject" per se, but rather it clearly demonstrates my belief in this underlying structure of forces and geometry.

Because of most viewers’ familiarity with the figure, I believe working with this specific form is the most expedient and effective means of presenting abstract ideas in concrete terms.

I believe that it is this underlying order and the universal structure of all subjects, which is the basic element of reality. In my opinion, art can provide knowledge of, or a glimpse into, reality. Art offers a special, non-discursive, and intuitive knowledge of reality that rational science cannot achieve. It is my hope that through uncovering elements which lay underneath the surface, hidden from our conscious awareness, my work will contribute to this ever deepening understanding of our physical environment.

Phenomena/Perception/Experience:

My work focuses on the phenomenal or external world, as it is perceived and becomes visible to our conscious mind. Thus, my art is as much about perception as it is about the perceived.

I believe that the external world is a unified system, mirroring our unified perception. However, human perception is limited to surface appearance. Our senses give us access to only a limited range of nature's reality. Beyond and below the boundaries of our senses are other aspects of the same reality, but they are imperceptible at certain levels. As early structuralist Merleu-Ponty in his ”Phenomenology of Perception" pointed out,“ the perceived thing is not an ideal unity in the possession of the intellect, but rather a totality open to a horizon of an indefinite number of perspectical views.". The object is much more than we perceive, or as Kant phrased it, "the phenomena stands in opposition to the thing-in-itself. Coming out of this belief or "Weltanschauung", my art is an attempt to expand our horizons by exploring perspectives of reality which lay hidden from our every-day perception. It is a means to uncover the essence of the thing or object in question, a search for the thing-in-itself.

Further, my sculptures are expressions of my individual experience of space. While human perception is objective and universal, the experience of any phenomena is subjective, since the observer gains experience both through first hand acquaintance as well as from second hand reports and testimonies from others. Thus, experience, again using Kant's terminology, is a "synthesis of the given and the made", since it involves a series of events from the past which are actually in one's memory. The way in which we experience our world in modem day, is drastically different from the way it was encountered by earlier generations. It is mainly through technology, that humanity has gained new perspectives on our internal as well as external world. 19th and 20th century technologies have given us insight on a microscopic as well as macroscopic level and have enabled us to see even beyond the visible regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. Space exploration has for the first time given mankind an outside perspective of the world.

My art is a metaphor for my experience of space. It is an effort to penetrate that inner density of "being" which makes the perceived so inaccessible to the naked eye. It is not an attempt to answer all questions raised in conjunction with phenomenology, but rather to further the viewer's experience of space through making him/her aware of reality's multiplicity which expands beyond our human perception, and its relation to ourselves.

Space/Matter/Time:

My sculptures are about space and reality. Space is the arena of physical life. Combined with matter and time, space represents the primary level of reality as it is perceived through our conscious mind. However, space in itself is but a concept. It is not reducible to a mere collection of given things, but rather it is a pre-given unity.

One can not think of space without taking matter, as well as time into consideration. The space we perceive is filled with objects, and while such an object might appear still, the components of its matter, such as atoms, electrons, neutrons, quarks, etc., are in constant movement. Thus, rather than being static, space is a dynamic and active environment.

With this in mind, I believe space to be a process, rather than what one might describe as a constant, or "state of being". I see it as a process in which space, matter, and time are interdependents. I conceive it as the activity of ever changing relations between matter in space through time.

However, my concept of space, as well my visual expression of it, extends beyond the physical, into the realms of the emotional and the metaphysical.

I believe that the underlying relations in the physical things we perceive are the true essence of their being and are responsible for how we experience these objects. While we cannot perceive these underlying relations physically, I would argue that it is this composition of space which carries with it certain information causing sensation and feeling in the viewer. Thus, we do not directly perceive objects but only the sensations and feelings they cause in our sense receptors. This is why we associate certain feelings with specific forms, and vise versa. For instance, while we experience a tree as an outburst of natural forces which, despite gravity, are pushing towards the sky, our experience of a sphere, such as the moon, is one of containment.

While my sculptures focus on the phenomenal or external world, they are visual notations of my own personal experience of space. My art is an attempt to capture the pure essence of an object's "being", or existence. I believe this pure essence to be in the structure of an object's elements, and their interrelationship and interconnection in space, matter, and time.

Structure/Order:

Structure, in its most basic sense, is the unity of the parts and joints of entities. It is a pattern of dynamic cohesion, of interacting forces perceived as a single spatial-temporal entity. I believe that besides space, matter, and time, it is structure and order which makes up the basis of our reality.

We are just now beginning to understand that our world is a modular one, built out of multiple replications of the structures which we call atoms. These atoms, which are mostly composed of space, contain other elements called electrons, protons, neutrons, and quarks. These elements are ever moving, but are organized in their patterns. All atoms have the same basic internal structure. What makes them different from each other is the number of electrons and protons contained within them. There are only a limited number of elements, each with its particular atomic structure. They become the building blocks of our natural world. Atoms join together to form molecules, which in turn cluster to form larger units of matter. The thing we perceive has one type of organization at the level of nuclear mechanics, and another type of organization on the level at which we examine it with our eyes. In between, there are many intermediate levels, each as real as the next.

The principle of structure and order is universal. It applies to the way in which nature sustains itself, as well as it applies to the way in which we as individuals or as a whole society live together. After all, man does not exist outside of, or in opposition to, nature, but rather as an extension of it. Thus, I believe that in understanding ourselves, we can gain inside into nature. We think in linear, logical, and structural terms. We have developed systems, such as language, geometry, perspective, mathematics, and music, all of which are based on structure. Thus I believe that objects, as well as events, are created and perceived as structured sequences of patterns.

I do not belief in chaos in its literal sense. I believe that every element of nature, every moment and happening, is a single link of a progression. It is order which connects these links into a unity of harmony. I see chaos as only a symptom of our limited perception.

Since I am an artist, in the sense of me being a visual and creative person, my work deals with the structure of space, matter, and time, as it finds expression in the physical object through form and surface.

Movement/Progression:

My sculptures are about the structured nature of space, matter, and time.

From these three elements evolves movement. Matter, though visibly a stable and static substance, is an invisible web of nuclear events with orbiting electrons jumping from orbit to orbit. While at a molecular level we observe movement in the motion of the electrons, protons, neutrons, and quarks around the atoms, on our level of reality matter is perceived as dense form. At a yet higher level we observe this movement of matter in the planetary movement within our universe.

In our conceptual model of reality, nature is understood as widely dispersed fields of energy. Like the principle of structure and order, the notion of movement and progression is universal. We have learned to recognize that matter, as well as geological, biological, psychological, and social nature is in constant change and transformation. Life in this sense signifies a chain of action, challenge, and response. Thus, motion is a pervasive aspect of nature.

Motion is a sequence. It is a following of one thing after another. As I have pointed out earlier, objects, as well as events, are created and perceived as structured sequences of patterns. Melodic line, organization, and rhythm are inherent not only in musical composition, but in all forms and events in which nature unfolds itself. We observe nature's rhythms in the cycles of day and night, high- and low tide, and the stages of the moon. We experience it in the beating of our hearts, through our breathing, as well as in the pulsating of blood through our arteries. Further, we find nature's melodic rhythm underlying all physical form. Proportion studies of the human figure, as well as plant and animal life, have shown that there is an underlying sequence to form.

Using mere line, my sculptures are an attempt to uncover and visualize nature's melodic rhythms. Though not kinetic, they describe movement. My lines describe dynamics within the human form, which relate directly to movement. Their use to outline underlying proportions enables me to capture the progression responsible for the objects appearances of form. Indirectly, my sculptures invite the viewer to move around the object, thus giving him/her the experience of movement. I believe a metaphor of movement, such as an orbit, to be more effective in describing movement than actual moving parts. An orbit, for instance, visualizes the pure essence of an object's circular movement around another body in space. It is a whole process put into a concrete medium. In my opinion, such a metaphor for movement heightens the viewer's awareness of motion, since he/she has to complete its process internally, and thus becomes an active part in this process.

Line:

I work with two-dimensional line in three-dimensional media, which seems almost contradictory, as if I'm drawing in space. However, it is through the use of this technique that the viewer is made aware of the sculpture's internal space. It is because of the openness of its linear construction that the sculptural space does not cut itself off from real space, but it rather becomes a metamorphosis of real space, making it more perceptible. Thus, I achieve a free flowing transition between sculptural and external space, which in the viewer evokes a sense of interconnectedness.

Further, this process allows me to layer several different interpretations of a certain form, without concealing their existence from the viewer. Rather than merely treating the surface. I'm conveying the form's underlying spatial properties, such as its proportion and geometry, as well as its curvilinear qualities.

My lines trace a form's internal structures, which I have defined earlier as the patterns of energy events. Whereas I make use of horizontals and verticals in the construction of form through the use of geometry, such as the platonic solids, as well as proportion outline, in the rendering of the human figure's surface I use spatially active lines. These lines create multidirectional movement. They create spatial forms, active in time, which evoke the feeling of the sculpture being formed by a pressure from within.

Sculpture:

It is because of my focus in the phenomenal world that I have chosen sculpture as my medium. Sculpture exists in the three-dimensional world which surrounds us. Unlike the object in a painting, the sculptural object is real, and inhabits our physical space. Writer and professor of philosophy David Martin defines sculpture as "a presence embodying a concrete sense of reality, present in the same continuum as the perceiver"; and he adds, "Sculpture has a distinctive underlying subject matter, the importance of being aware of our unity with things, our direct relationship with things." Thus, the process, as well as the experience of sculpture is about regaining a more direct contact with reality.

Sculpture is more than just vision. It can be experienced through sight and touch. Thus, sculpture, even when abstract, can be more easily understood than painting, in the sense that it, through its physical nature, is observed more directly. In short, Sculpture is direct experience. Language makes a note of this relation between the senses and comprehension. Thus, "begreifen", the german term for "to understand", is derived from "greifen", meaning "to touch". Likewise, in English, "to understand" means "to grasp" as well as "to see".

Further, as I have pointed out in the paragraph on space/matter/time, an object in space projects a certain sensation, which is due to the relationship of its inner space, as well as outer space, such as the objects relation to other bodies in space. Thus, sculpture is concerned about activating space – space that can not be activated without the sculpture. The sculptural object "energizes" its surrounding space.

My sculptures are specifically about this underlying subject matter of this medium. Henri Laurens defines it as: "essentially occupation of space, construction of an object with hollows and solid parts, mass and void, their variations and reciprocal tension, and finally their equilibrium". They are not about what they represent - the human figure, but rather they are about the characteristics of space and reality.

The Human Figure:

"Every work of art has subject matter, form, and content. The subject matter is what the work is about. It is never given in a work of art, for it has been transformed by form. Content is the revealed subject matter detached from form, the meaning of the work."

F. David Martin

Because of most viewers’ familiarity with the figure, I believe working with this specific form is the most expedient and effective means of presenting abstract ideas in concrete terms.

Our bodies fuse us with reality. Each person is a point of orientation and the center of the universe. Notions of measure and distance in space grow from our human scale and the understanding of our physical place in space. The body is co-perceived with all other things. It is the form which determines our apprehension of all physical objects. It is because of the fact that the viewer can easily make a connection with the body, that I have chosen the human figure as my form of expression. However, the content of my sculptures lies in the structured interconnection and interrelation of all things.

I believe that creating work which makes us re-conceptualize our bodies and our own impulses enables us to see dignity and nobility in the world of non-art and non-figure objects as well.