Baroqorab (Stilfragen)
Stilfragen translates from the German as "Problems of Style"which is the title of a seminal work of late C19 art theory by Art historian Alois Riegl. It was an attempt to formulate a mechanism for stylistic change or historical direction in the myriad art styles and movements from the ancient world till the late C19. These works are inspired by this notion of stylistic change and attempt to encode the idea of stylistic evolution. they share a gestalt which in current debates in cognitive science is considered to be biological in basis; i.e. humans ability to decode imagery and structure is a necessity borne of living in a perilous and beautiful world.
The shapes are taken from the rich foliate details of a piece of intricately patterned baroque wallpaper, then blown up and abstracted to suitable proportions.This type of scale inversion, making the small huge and vice versa as well as taking one material or scrap of visual information and translating it into another context is a recurrent device in my art practice.
Baroqorab is a palindrome that suggests an endless looping of style, these works operate as fragments of ornament removed from an architectural context.
© 2006 Simeon Nelson. All rights reserved