Perceptions
An experimental piece that developed through several stages. First from the idea of preservation. Of particular interest was the dynamic of perserving the natural world in an artificial container (a plastic bag) and the question of is perservation acceptable if it removes the object from sight and ultimately destroys it?
This went further, by challenging the audience to if they trust the labels, as they very well could be false. Exactly how much trust does a viewer give the artist and how much should they?
On a tangential topic, trust is related to the idea of truth. This connects back to a philosophy question concerning art and how much truth does art reflect and how much distortion. Aristotle sums this nicely when he wrote, “The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.” So what is truth in art, particularly in a piece that challenges perceptions?
The work developed further when the casts were broken open to determine if there was an object, what object, and what its condition was.
Plaster, black acrylic paint, and natural items (leaves, feathers, flowers, berries, etc), 2018. This was made for the class, Ordinary Artifacts.