Nature constitutes the visual framework for my creative process. I do not work from strict observation. Rather my work is based on a collage of visual references composed under the auspices of nature, and seemingly natural occurrences are reinvented as natural phenomena. At once familiar and estranged these works adapt a visual vocabulary indigenous to nature. But without real counterparts they draw on the imagination, freely associating sculptural forms with the emotional response that we tend to draw from nature.

Often we look at nature in search of an ideal, representing beauty and a source of inspiration. At the same time our aspirations to shape life around us are inevitably tied to our natural environment. We force nature to accommodate our needs, and we impose on it the imprint of our vision as humans. My work reflects on this complex and often contradictory relationship with nature, where our utopian perception of nature collides with our ambitions. My sculptures intend to establish a dialogue between nature as a delicate and infinitely complex construct of relationships and our forceful positioning within these systems. But my work does not simply present human interference as a finite cataclysmic conclusion; rather it portrays nature as a continuum constantly absorbing the physical remnants of our presence. Reinvented as phenomena these manifestations are in themselves a mirror of our conflicting relationship with nature.

There is a deliberate artificiality in my work. It manifests itself in the synthetic, the transparent materiality of the cast resins. Replicas of forms found in nature are reproduced in minute detail, but they suggest a context that intends to reveal rather than disguise. Identical in form but distinctly different in their appearance they manifest themselves as counterparts to nature, mirror images that present a departure from the revered purity of nature.

Hypothetical as it might be my work is based on a reality, an image of nature lacerated by industrial materials and manmade structures. Hardly ever do we experience nature in its purity, unspoiled from our intrusions. Rather we accept nature as part of a shared habitat, compromised by a system of necessities and conveniences. Similarly, manmade structures are subjugated to nature’s entropic forces. No matter how permanent these structures are intended to be the environment has a way to reclaim.

Positioned between the two opposites, nature on the one side and the manmade environment on the other side, my work intends to visualize this tension. It merges both palettes, introducing shapes, materials, and textures that simultaneously remind us of objects found in an industrial urban environment and natural forms.

 

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