Redolent Hills and Delectable Mountains

Year: 2012 / 2013

Medium: Giclée print on semi gloss paper with Diasec mount / ground spices, dried herbs, cotton, flour, water

Print size: H90 x W67.5 cm (excluding borders)

Text:

Magnificent clear blue skies, furry white clouds, majestic mountains and luxurious green hills. Who shall partake in such experience and 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 project, ‘Redolent Hills and Delectable Mountains’, I hope to achieve such similar experience by the making of my personal landscapes. After exploring the process of construction with various materials, grounded spices, dried herbs, cotton, and flour, were determined as the key constituents – considering the relation between the physicality of these materials and the composition of actual landscapes, as well as their very organic quality that determines 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 a landscape. The progression of the landscapes over the duration complies me to pay attention to every detail of these mountains, clouds, rivers and every other element in the work. Such methodical process is especially important, particularly since it acts as an advocate to actuate the critical components within the totality of the landscape, the ‘grandeur’. The resulting images present the same quality to the audiences, invite their imagination to further contribute to the construction process, and engage them to find themselves in a position of the ecstatic being in the paradox of the fabricated.

Editions of 4, 1AP

*Redolent Hills and Delectable Mountains #1, #2 & #5 – Editions 3 of 4, 1 AP remaining