gallery 2
a constructed habitat
The works in this gallery represent my earliest explorations of an experimental arts practice as it would be aimed at an exploration of a constructed urban habitat. In this, while these works represent an exploration of a constructed world, they represent a investigation of it as it would exist within a universal reality. The simple fact of the matter is that while the urban landscape we live is constructed by us, it is not a prism of conceptual framework through which we see a universal reality, and is instead just part of the universal reality that we as we would be entities in it like ant and bees etc would shape the materials of that reality to construct our own environment.
Because of this I am what I am doing here is ‘pointing’ an experimental arts practice at the city city landscape as it would exist within a universal reality, and what I was trying to capture here is my own existential experience with this construct. In doing some of the pieces like with those of the last gallery, track the way that I came to terms with this construct as a construct in itself, and some of them are contemplative pieces that explore the relationship that we as individuals would have with it.
Theses works in order to capture these experiences are all in a way both ‘of’ and ‘about’ the urban habitat that I was exploring, and in this the works from 1999 to 2001 represent the beginnings of the exploration of an experimental arts practice pointed at our artificial constructed environment. The works from 2001 to 2004 then track the way that I came to terms with it as an environment in itself. The works after these, are all then contemplative pieces as I consider what our relationship to the habitat we construct for ourselves is.
2012
The works above were from a series called ‘Tree Changers’ that were contemplative pieces intended to explore our relationship to the landscape we live. Specifically what I was attempting to capture was a relationship in which we love the ‘real’ landscape but have this unstoppable urge to destroy and reconstruct it ‘more perfectly’. These works are all attempts to capture this relationship on their two different ‘planes’ and through an attempt to construct works that explored the acts of ‘looking through’ and ‘looking at’. What I was trying to get my audience to do was to look ‘at’ the suburban landscapes that we live within, to think about how they are constructed, that they destroy what they construct, and that whatever we construct always ‘breaks down’. Specifically however, what I hoped that the audience would think about is their own relationship to this process and what it means for them.
2005-07
The work in the 2005-07 series, ‘Can’t see the Wood for the Tree’s’ are an exploration of one of the reverse engineered methods that I used to make work that was ‘of’ and ‘about’ the constructed habitat we live, as this would be vacuum forming. These works all speak of the a more collective relationship to an urban habitat, but more specifically do this as they explore the agency of my subject within the works. That is, as I explored the limits and distortions of vacuum forming as I would be doing something like ‘co-opting’ the ‘mark’ of my subject.
2001-04
The works from 2001-04 are from a series called ‘The Garden of Earthly Delights’. These works were about coming to terms with what the city landscape actually is and then through this to understand it as an artificial habitat. This series was all constructed as part of my research project at Tokyo University of the Arts into street signs and textures of the city. There are actually two small series in this broader group. The first is a series reconstructing the natural elements using textures of the city, and the next the installation work ‘Deep in the Woods’ which tries to capture my own personal experience of being immersed within this landscape/reality/habitat
1999
This last series of work was where I first heard about and started to consider the nature of an experimental arts practice, and first aimed it at the material social reality we create in our urban habitats. In these works I was specifically exploring the relationship between the city and the body.
these works however, are only representative of those that i did in relation to a constructed habitat. if you would like to view the archive then please click the button below.