ART Habens Art Review // Special Issue ART Habens Art Review | Page 10

ART Habens
Donald Bracken
outside my window ; I am looking at it as we speak , and one aspect I like about it is how it changes with the light and how new forms are revealed in changing conditions , as when it has snow on it . As time goes on I have been increasingly documenting outdoor installations and the process of their entropic deconstruction as they sustain the effects of varying light , weather , and seasons . Since the tetrahedrons that form the base can conceivably be repeated endlessly and there seems to be no shortage of unwanted vines around where I live , at some point I plan to make a very long Calligraphy piece .
A relevant feature of Frozen Moment that has particularly impacted me is the way you highlight the inner bond between Man and Nature : You invite the viewer to appreciate the intrinsic but sometimes disregarded beauty of geometrical patterns , bringing a new level of significance to the idea of landscape itself . In particular , the evolving nature of the installation offers a multilayered experience ... Like Jean Tinguely ’ s generative works , this installation raises a question on the role of the viewers ’ perception , forcing us to go beyond the common way we perceive not only the outside world , but our inner dimension ... I ’ m personally convinced that some information is hidden , or even “ encrypted ” in the environment we live in , so we need to decipher it . Maybe one of the roles of an artist could be to reveal unexpected sides of Nature , especially of our inner Nature ... what ’ s your take on this ?
I would agree that one of my roles as an artist is to relate outer Nature to inner nature . In the case of Frozen Moment , from my earliest days of painting I ’ ve always been fascinated by things floating in the air or flying through the air . I was a pole vaulter in high school and I ’ ve done free-fall skydiving many times , and I ’ ve always liked the idea of being able to freeze something as it ’ s falling . I was making Frozen Moment in winter , so the piece became about death and decay and the renewal of life . The leaves have so many coats of white polymer on them that they are rubbery and look like they are made of clay . The viewer is invited to look at the leaves as they like when they are falling . They jiggle and spin but never fall , so one
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