Gary Weisman
United States
Everyone would probably agree: Art is not obligated to follow reason. In fact, some would assert that art gains authority when its source is not reason; when it "comes from the heart" or other clichés that assume an emotional, political, or illogical but provoking source for the art. This bronze sculpture asks that we experience art outside of reason and outside the cliché of emotions; that we not “outsource art” to reason and emotions but experience art as an origin. My sculptural attempts, from maquette to over life size human figures composed in a compassionate naturalistic approach, ask us to abandon our preconceptions of space and gravity. But, explanation is a pale shadow of the art experience.
The bronzes do not speak of containment, but of participation. The figure is in dialogue with the surrounding space and demands acknowledgement of that space as an ontological factor; not as container. The figure does not exist outside that participation and as Gadamer states, the conversation never ends. The bronzes are the origin of a particular art experience claiming ground only in the immediate phenomenological relationships of art to viewer to space.
* This statement has been provided directly by the artist in association to their 14th International ARC Salon entries. This content has not been edited for typos or grammatical errors and has not been vetted for accuracy.