Redolent Hills and Delectable Mountains

Year: 2012/2013

Medium: Ground spices, dried herbs, flour, water

Size of print: 90 x 67.5cm w/o borders

Text:

Magnificent clear blue skies, furry white clouds, majestic mountains and luxurious green hills. Who that shall partake in this shall not be taken away in that immensity of such exalted elegance, with a certain degree of desire to prolong this breathtaking moment, and the slightest hope of eternalising it? I often find myself subjected to this grandeur; a pleased subject of it.

In this recent project “Redolent Hills and Delectable Mountains”, I wish to achieve the similar experience by the making of my personal landscapes. After exploring the process of construction with various materials, I decided to employ grounded spices, dried herbs, cotton and flour as the key constituents – the most relevant composition to the actual matter of the land in consideration of their physicality, and more importantly, their very organic quality determine an undeniable association to the land, to nature. Most interestingly, they allow my work to reside in the juxtaposition of what is reality and what is the imagined, luring the eyes to see beyond the obvious, embarking the expedition of discovery.

The photographing and the constructing of each landscape took place in a twenty gallon tank, and through a period of five to seven days. The process which proceeds through this period allows me to deliberately construct my work in accordance to a set of guidelines, and yet still carefully giving space for the imaginative to manifest itself. The camera here then represents the presence of the being before the scene. The progression of the landscapes over the duration complies me to comprehend every detail of the mountains, clouds, rivers and every other element in the scape work. This comprehension is especially important because it acts as an advocate to actuate my possession of the landscape, the “grandeur”. The resulting images present the same acquisition to the audiences, invite their imagination to further contribute to the construction and engage them to find themselves in a position of the admiring being in the paradox of the fabricated.

Editions of 4, 1AP