In putting this image together, I saw light casting out from a mechanical device. I thought of film, as in film for a traditional 20th century camera, and how it chemically forms images on its surface after being exposed to light. Then I thought of the primitive ritual art that cavemen made in prehistoric times on cave walls. I combined these thoughts in the title Cave Camera.
I wanted to combine a futuristic robotic or computerized device with the idea of a caveman painting something on a cave wall along with light cast upon it so that the image can be seen with added special effects. Simultaneously, in a more contemporary time period, I see associations with a movie director and how movie directors set up movements in time to be filmed. Images capture moments in time, whether if they are more subjective, as in a painting, or more objective, as in a photograph. Movies capture movements in time, such as with films and videos. Movies used to be created by image frame stills in the 20th century. Many stills were linked together so that, when they quickly passed over a source of light, the images cast upon a wall or silver screen gave the illusion of movement. This surely would have been a magical experience for a caveman.
I was inspired by some of these ideas by reading The Work of Art in the Mechanical Age of Reproduction, by Walter Benjamin, and Meditations on a Hobby Horse, by Ernst Gombrich. It seems like we are entering a dark age here in the Western world, so I have ideas now that reach back to the origins of art and why people made art in prehistoric times. I realize pretty much everything time related is cyclical, so, if we do end up collapsing our civilization all the way down to a dark age, it will only be temporary; temporary in a larger sense of time that is.
This image comes from three different sources of my art that I’ve blogged about before. One of which I’ve blogged about already—Astonished Buoyancy. Another image I blogged about here, Archimedes’ Light, is part of a larger drawing I made called Tree Fish, which is amalgamated into this illustration. A part of New York Station is also incorporated into this piece. My goal is to explore the varying degrees of approximation the different layers and sources have with one another as I form new images. They sometimes merge well as if they were all from the same source, and other times I can tell that its been put together. Either one of these perceptions is okay with me because I work with the new image enough to usually satisfy my visual field and sense of composition.
In Meditations on a Hobby Horse, Ernst Gombrich discusses the idea of replacement, substitution, and surrogation. A hobby horse is meant as a substitution for a real live horse so that a kid can enjoy imagining riding a horse as he or she rocks back and forth on it. While this is an outdated idea today because kids don’t ride hobby horses in this day and age, it still represents the idea of substitution in art. In history, art has been a vehicle for representations of reality as people perceive it. More recently, art became a vehicle for representing an artist’s inner world and how he or she expresses it for the masses to represent a collective inner reality. That’s where I am at in my artistic endeavors.
The layers of previous works that I’ve made introduced into new images and combinations are concepts I use to build in my imagination. These concepts are usually found in objects, people, places, or ideas. My art becomes a subtle substitution for a multiplicity of things. I aim to create eye food for you. Something to help you organize your mind.
Specifications:
Title: Cave Camera (version 1)
Source mediums: Water-based ink, and ball-point pen, on paper, digitally combined
Print medium: Hewlett Packard printer ink from Hewlett Packard DesignJet Z2100 printer on Hewlett Packard print paper (Note: print can be made with archival paper and printer if requested)
Digital manipulation completed: 9/3/2017
Dimensions of print: 32 inches by 28 inches
Number of limited edition prints: 25
Investment of print not framed: $90.00
Investment of print framed with glass: $430.00 (shipping included)
Contact me: artofevan@hotmail.com
Art of eVan 