The Vital Illusion is inspired by Baudrillard.
” To challenge and to cope with this paradoxical state of things, we need a paradoxical way of thinking; since the world drifts into delirium, we must adopt a delirious point of view.”
” But for the present age, which prefers the sign to the thing signified, the copy to the original, representation to reality, appearance to essence… truth is considered profane, and only illusion is sacred. Sacredness is in face held to be enhanced in proportion as truth decreases and illusion increases, so that the highest degree of illusion comes to be the highest degree of sacredness.” –
Ludwig Feuerbach, Preface to the second edition of The Essence of Christianity
Fundamentally my work investigates the innate struggle between cause and effect. Derived primarily from the study of headlines, sounds bites and idle conversations my assemblages attempt to transpose these disjointed remnants of media overload and targeted consumption into tangible yet uncertain analogies. My motivation and objective is simply to mirror our behavior by fusing these cultural fragments into new stories that challenge our collective assumptions and aspirations. Offering in return alternate realities and uninhibited probabilities as a manifesto for absolution.
The immediate nature of collage along with the diverse mediums and improvisational assembly techniques I employ replicate the frenetic world we live in. By affording nothing more than filtered reflections my work is able to remove itself from the expectations of reality and aesthetic, relying rather on instinctual analysis as a means to critique our environment. This subjective process also provides an unobstructed opportunity to freely intertwine conventional artist mediums with modern technologies, such as giclee, polymer gel transfers and digital manipulation. Together these methods bridge the past with the present, transforming familiar imagery into mysterious quilt like compositions that expose humanities often misguided ambition for the future.
Through a compound perspective of suspicion and conviction my evaluation of this world is informed and revised daily, distilling further my underlying obsession with the idyllically mundane. From within this conceptual and systemic framework style and technique are exploited only as a means to an end. My work is essentially a product of its environment, for me clarity and relief is found solely through the process itself. What remains is a new and deconstructed remnant of our existence, an undefined record to be reconsidered. The conclusion, if any, is left to the viewer’s discretion.
Charles Wilkin
Other artists on view :
James Gallagher, Gemma Bayly, Geoff J Kim, David Tippit, Suzy Poling, Ashkan Honarvar, Jeromie Dorrance, Alicia Ordal, Anthony Zinonos, Steve Wilson, Herbert Bayer, Jacky Avila
EXHIBITION
The Vital Illusion, curated by Mario Zoots
Month of Photography Denver
March 1 – 30 2013
Vertigo Art Space 960 Santa Fe Dr
Denver, CO
USA
