ART Habens
Joshua Healey Lapena
question the limits of painting as a medium for communicating my ideas further.
‘ Laurence Jones’ architecture also inspired me to carry on investigating how structures inform the way we see the world. Imagination has played a huge role in my art making process; while on my degree, I was involved in creating an exhibition called coda. By accident the works had a black theme. This was a huge success, as it challenged the way conceptual art within a collective engages with the public.
I’ m half Spanish and part South African. On my Spanish side my family come from a village in the mountains, where the scenery is molded by industrialization and natural history. The village is in a vitrine between two mountains creating a combined feeling of human isolation and a connection with nature. The rock formations form turrets and arches while the fog creates an eerie ambiance around the hazel nut trees. In South Africa, there is a larger variation of plants that are in a very different relation to industrial interests. Technology is all around us, but its relation to nature has limitations, which I want to understand further.
Most of the imagery I look for comes from my experience of observing natural scenes and the imaginary use of technology. Specifically, I am interested in the questions that have to do with the psychology of the relation between gravity and time. I have watched a lot of science fiction series and movies; Johnnie Darko was interesting, as the alternate worlds he lives through reach the same end where an aircraft turbine crashes through his house and kills him. They appear to be sourced from the unconscious. The subject is
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