2010 - In the Tradition of a Caveman

“We have learned nothing in twelve thousand years.” Picasso

In 2010 much of my artistic energies were devoted to developing a style using Chinese ink on rock sourced from Black Mountain in the centre of Canberra. I had been attracted to rock since I formed an appreciation for rock gardens while living in Japan in 2003. This appreciation grew when living in China where I saw large rocks being used as sculptures or symbols in front of large buildings. When I returned to Australia, I noted the rock beneath my feet that I had never paid much attention to previously. When I’d split it, I’d marvel at the flow of colours, the history and the story it was telling. It seemed to be calling to me.

As I learnt more about rock, I realised that creating a refined rock painting was not unlike playing a musical instrument. It required an understanding of the various notes that various rocks had, and then selectively compiling them into a melody. Some notes were to be found in the geographic origin of the rock. Some were to be found in the expressive lines and colours of the rock. Still more notes were to be found in the manner of assemblage. Still more notes were found in the cultural associations that have formed over the tens of millennia that we have painted on the rock or looked to the rock to find the answers to how we came into being. The image that was ultimately selected for the rock was the melody that selectively brught the notes together.

Ants Attack their Genes in the Rainbow Serpent's DNA - (2010)

Black Mountain Ram (2010)

Becoming Australian (2010)

While one part of me was going back to human genesis with its fascination with rocks, another part was experimenting with how technology could enhance human creativity, or reveal questions about what creativity actually was. I had an exhibition on cultural fusion, and a friend, Karl DeWet, who was both a photographer and IT guru, suggested he create a Photosynth of the exhibition so that he could explore his curiosity in its potential.

From a pragmatic perspective, I thought it was a great idea because it allowed my exhibition to be recorded forever. When the final product was uploaded, I realised that it had great artistic potential in its own right. Photosynth was designed to allow a navigator to choose a specific 2 plane that he or she wanted more detail on. The software would then combine up to 300 photos to give a very clear image of that plane. If the navigator wanted even more detail, he or she could zoom in further. While the software did that effectively, when navigating between planes, the software had trouble making sense of incongruent images. As a result, it created something that is best described as a photographic expression of the theory of cubism. Specifically, it produced a mosaic of perspectives that had been incongruently combined in a 2d plane with a singular perspective.

As an artist, I employed the divine selection process of Marcel Duchamp to choose imagery that was interesting, and in that way, I was making art. Just as there was no great ability for Duchamp to select a urinal and put it in a gallery, I didn’t need any great ability to choose some images from many possible alternatives and define it as art. Nevertheless, I found the process to be interesting because if the imagery that I selected had been hand compiled by someone who identified themselves as an artist, I would have said they had great talent. In truth, the "art" I was selecting was merely the creations of a mindless software program that lacked the information necessary to do what it was supposed to do, and was unable to remedy its problem by interpreting the imagery it did have. In other words, art was created out of its limitations in knowledge and ability.

I've never been one to create art to ask questions about what art is, but the art most definitely asked me questions about the origins of creativity as well as the future of it in a technology rich world. Additionally, it clarified to me that art is a collaborative process. It could be argued that the artist responsible for the creation of the imagery were the programmers at Microsoft who produced Photosynth, my friend Karl who conceived the idea, took the photos and uploaded them, or myself whose art was the subject of the paintings and who just selected the incongruent snapshots that were interesting. While such arguments could be made, each would have major holes in them. You are only able to see the images below because different people with different intentions set about doing things that produced an unforseen outcome when their intentions interacted with the intentions of others.

An ecletic summation of influences

Three ladies in three contexts

Behind the Red Door and Genesis

Offerings for the Dead

Photosynth by Karl DeWet

1)Click the button on the  open the view
2) Click on the “expand” button in the bottom right hand corner
3) Use controls to navigate around gallery or zoom in on a painting