insite
: : kevan nitzberg
While
bouncing up and down rather unceremoniously on my garden tractor recently, cutting
down clover and the various assortments of milk weeds, crab grass and the like
that are constantly threatening to choke the grass, along with bringing ruination
to the more than a few ant hill mounds that had gone a bit wild in the riding
ring out behind the barn, I witnessed some rather extraordinary but fleeting cloud
configurations. These had formed overhead due to a cool front that we had been
experiencing most of the day that had brought welcome relief from a week plus
of hot and humid air. The almost doughnut-ring shaped clouds, surrounding bright
patches of robin's egg blue sky, appeared to be condensing and pulling away from
my particular vantage point as I stared up at them from my overly active tractor's
spring-shot seat. The apparent movement of the clouds caused them to appear as
if they were being viewed through a powerful zoom lens that was continuously receding
from a tight in shot to a limitless wide angle view.
That
illusion of movement (brought on by continually going round and round in almost
automaton fashion, keeping the front right wheel forever inside the track of the
previous pass), was in and of itself not surprising, but the imagery and the effect
that the movement had on it, suddenly struck me as extraordinary. Somehow there
seemed to be an almost otherworldliness about the scene, as if a shift had occurred
that had altered reality in some inexplicably subtle way, changing the outlook
of what typically might be considered to be simply ordinary and expected. That
wonder of the moment certainly plays a crucial part in the attempt to try and
capture the phenomenon of those quickly passing flashes of perception that invade
the consciousness from time to time.
The
following flight of fantasy across the online landscape, explores this almost
otherworldly sense of perception. A rather random, meandering path that has no
obviously pre-conceived structure beyond the chain of image and response that
is simply based on whatever it appears to be suggesting begins to unfold. As,
however, the impetus for this piece began as a result of the continual struggle
for containing the growth of vegetation and ant populations on the farm, we might
as well begin there as Alice did long ago when she found her own rabbit hole to
dive into. So, back to the 'garden' as it were….
[1]
Colors
seem to fade
The brightness of reflected light
Diminishes the after-image
palette
Altering the landscape
Left bleached, ghost-like
[2]
Outside
in and inside out,
Iconography reformatted
A settling in of contentment
and reflection,
Yet isolated and backed into a corner
Plants growing out
of context and 2D people hanging on walls
[3]
Incongruity
persists as another combination comes into view
Fish out of water or deification
of underwater life?
Revered, transparent, a frozen edifice in a northern clime,
Surrounded
by palm trees
A blend of art and architecture by design
[4]
And
there, out on the street,
Tempestuous vine twisted shapes
Careening madly
about,
Seeking to enter a residence
Reminiscent
of another time.
Animated in their positioning,
Biomorphic in form,
Anomalies
abound.
The expectation of being fixed in place
Gives way
No roots exist
here to achieve stability with the ground
Go
to part two
Image
sources
[1] JMP Gallery
http://www.jmpgallery.com/pictures-infrared01.asp[2]"Garden
of Icons" by Kristina Faulkner
http://www.erieartmuseum.org/programs/exhibits/exhibits2002/kristina_faulkner/kristina_faulkner.html
[3]
"Standing Glass Fish" by Frank Gehry
http://garden.walkerart.org/tour.wac
[4]
"Easy Does It" by Patrick Dougherty
http://www.stickwork.net/dougherty/main.html
affiliates
