Reorientations

Galerie Maria Lund |  Paris, France  |  2007



A fundamental paradox exists in that we as human beings are part of nature and yet separated from it by our consciousness. We feel a profound connection and alienation at the same time. Nature as an idea is conventionally opposed to culture yet how we conceive of and find meaning in nature is a cultural process.



In everday experience we tend to keep nature at a certain level of presence in our understanding. I lok to places that disrupt this, where the natural asserts itself without us. This occurs in geoloic phenomena like boiling mud pots, spouting geysers and crashing waterfalls. such environments evoke fascination, wonder, curiosity, beauty and at times apprehesion and fea. I empathize with such landscapes and work to created situations that provoke similar kinds of responses, positioning the viewer in relation to their own perception and understanding of nature.



Working is a process of discovery as I search for unusual, intriguing or beautiful qualities and tendencies in material processes. I use ceramic materials for their inherent 'naturalness'. Blurring the line between natural and artificial, they act as effective mediators between nature and culture. My treatment of them allows us to contemplate the idea of a natural landscape on a small even intimate scale. I want to explore our ambivalent experience withiin nature by intensifying the attaction and sense of estrangement simultaneously.



Show Review in La Revue de la Céramique et du verre entitled "Les Observations de Linda Swanson by Marielle Ernould-Gandouet