Category: Landscape

Jigsaws, memory, menage a trois and the work of Anton Nickson

Jigsaws are powerfully symbolic and re-presentational of our desire to have a coherent picture of the world and to fit the ‘pieces’ together so as to make sense.  An artist whose I work I like very much Anton Nickson has painted a piece that plays on this idea to great effect especially in relation to the theme of ‘menage a trois’.

For me the work is powerfully resonant with ideas of memory and place and reminds me of Roni Horn’s bringing together of the human form, the mind and landscape.

A piece by Nickson that I would love to own is

Anton Nickson
BLACKADE
41 x 41 cm
Wooden blocks

Nickson is represented by the Lemon Street Gallery, 13 Lemon Street, Truro, Cornwall, TR1 2LS, UK +44 (0) 1872 275757 info@lemonstreetgallery.co.uk http://www.lemonstreetgallery.co.uk
© copyright Lemon Street Gallery 2005

The Anton Nickson page is HERE

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SEE also Learning Motivation for Success

All postings to this site relate to the central model in the PhD.

Summaries are HERE

The Lemon Street gallery is HERE

Answering ‘Who am I?’, portraying the world and finding ourselves

“A man sets himself the task of portraying the world. Over the years he fills a given surface with images of provinces and kingdoms, mountains, bays, ships, islands, fish, rooms, instruments, heavenly bodies, horses, and people. Shortly before he dies he discovers that this patient labyrinth of lines is a drawing of his own face.” ~ Jorge Luis Borges, Epilogue

I walk the same three mile triangular walk almost every day – in exquisite Northumbrian countryside. The following question popped into consciousness; “From whence does the landscape come in which I walk.” Not long after the question arrived I came across a wonderful paper by Sarah (Sally) Hill of the University of Auckland (?). She heads up her paper with this;

It seems to me an interesting idea: that is to say the idea that we live in the description of a place and not in the place itself, and in every vital sense we do.
-Wallace Stevens

However reality like meaning made of texts is not only a matter of personal construction as David Chandler;

The range of theories about where meaning emerges in the relationship between readers and texts can be illustrated as a continuum between two extreme positions respectively, those of determinate meaning and completely ‘open’ interpretation, thus:

* Objectivist: Meaning entirely in text (’transmitted’);
* Constructivist: Meaning in interplay between text and reader (’negotiated’);
* Subjectivist: Meaning entirely in its interpretation by readers (’re-created’).

Chandler points out that the reader is less passive, more active across the continuum toward the subjective.

From The Act of Writing Daniel Chandler http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/act/act.html

References

“Landscape,Writing, and Photography”by Sarah (Sally) Hill of University of Auckland

SEE also http://rmmla.wsu.edu/ereview/55.2/articles/parker.asp

SEE previous posting re Triadic Forms

‘You browse, therefore I am.’ Paul McIlvenny

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NB All postings to this site relate to the central model in the PhD.

Summaries are HERE

 

‘Light on the Landscape’ – stunning photography by Claudio Marcozzi

If you love photography don’t miss the work of Claudio Marcozzi;
claudio-marcozzi-women-talking-in-strong-sunlight-and-shadow.jpg

See more of his work and some terrific writing about landscape HERE

This statement about landscape contains two outstanding points. The first is ‘the landscape ends at the horizon, but begins inside of us. The second is the idea that the landscape we see and photograph is an aspect of us, or even an aspect of Self.

To photograph a landscape as one takes a portrait in a studio may seem a paradox, but it is almost the same thing. It deals with working with the light on the subject and in the background in order to make the somatic (or geologic) characteristics stand out: the wrinkles of the ground, the gentleness of the slopes, the roughness of the ruts in the land. To underline the contours or to give importance to the volumes, to specify the forms or to make the depth stand out.
Working in the studio we can arrange the light sources as we like, but the situation is very different working in the “field”. There is only one light source, and is not always available. We must wait. When our light technician wants to work he is almost a God, but if he doesn’t want to…..plentiful doses of insults and curses aren’t worth anything. We have to wait (and this aspect is a great lessons of humility and life). It is necessary to know in advance when there will be good light, and sometimes even this doesn’t count. Sometimes the light passes, slips, runs, creeps, spreads, envelops, vanishes, goes. And, with its conspiratorial shadow, makes the texture stand out.
In these situations, photographing the landscape becomes stimulating – to be on the alert to steal the moment – while usually one thinks that it must be an utterly relaxing occupation. It is exactly in these circumstances that that magic I-don’t-know-what shows itself, allowing us to transfigure, rather than simply reproduce, a portion of world. And it is in this way that one can capture the soul of the environment that surrounds us, that is none other than the reflection of our soul.
Because the landscape ends at the horizon, but begins inside of us.

 

To read more go HERE

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All postings to this site relate to the central model in the PhD.

Summaries are HERE