There are also implications for the future, which Chevalier well understands. Miguel believes, for example, we are entering a new frontier:
“from the aesthetic and symbolic standpoint,
we are, with Fractal Flowers, at the confines of
three worlds: mineral, vegetable, and animal.”9
He also believes we are soon to see a revolution in creative work: “thanks to the print
technology of power sintering, this new flower gives material form to one part of my virtual world. This process completely revolutionizes contemporary creative work. It is a watershed for this aesthetic of the virtual realm that can now mix pixels and matter, thereby abolishing the virtual and the real.”11
What does it all mean?
There is consistent acknowledgement that Chevalier is recognized as “a pioneer of generative and algorithmic art,” who has made major contribution to the advancement of art through computers and digitization.11 And, how can one think these creations are not beautiful?
Singularly and in total, the shapes of these “artificial natures” are unique and their colors are vibrant. They become alive before the viewer, or the “interactor” as some call them. One feels through them the actual act of creation: a seed is planted, it is born and grows, its essence is captured in a singular image that then joins and interacts with others to create an environment of community, within which decay and death happens in conjunction with rebirth and nourishment, creating stories through which meaning is revealed across time.
It is this interaction that generates parallels with what we experience in our daily lives, our history, and our culture. Chevalier addresses history and culture, for example, through Digital Arabesques, which, given Islamic notions of mathematics and patterns, find their expression in weaving. As noted by Couchot:
For a visual artist, a carpet is firstly a
two-dimensional surface with patterns, shapes and colors. It can also become a volume with a few turns of the hand, and this is how Miguel Chevalier works with it, combining tradition and modernity into imaginary realms it opens. With Digital Arabesques, the artist moves pixels into the carpet and the carpet into pixels. Weaving is based on the knot as the structural unity that spawns the patterns and images through interlacing the threads of the warp and weft on the loom. Since the analogy between the points of pixels and those of the knots is obvious, it’s logical that the carpet found itself part of Miguel Chevalier’s creative field.12
It can also specifically be seen in the installation of Miguel’s Magic Carpets. As noted by Couchot: “Miguel attempted to recreate the magical atmosphere of the 1,001 Arabian Nights, taking inspiration from the geometric model of the arabesque. Introducing works in situ compels the artist to get to know the place, to respect its cultural atmosphere without sacrificing his own originality; he must come not as an occupant but as a servant.”13 Working to “integrate the piece not only into the particular space and the history of the surroundings, but to the culture it occupies as well,”13 Chevalier makes us realize “understanding — and appreciating – works of art always engages not just emotion, but a profound cultural aptitude, an education, as well."
One feels through them the actual act of creation: a seed is planted, it is born and grows, its essence is captured in a singular image that then joins and interacts with others to create an environment of community,within which decay and death happens in conjunction with rebirth and nourishment.
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