Statement | Ravi Arupa Aesthetics

ARTIST’S STATEMENTS

Cyclops Rising (An Ontology in Sequential Drawings,)

This work is an experiment in which the viewer must rid themselves of all paradigms employed in culture and society, like past, present, and future. We cannot experience the past or future, because those terminologies are concepts. We only experience the moment.

Even the idea of the present can be misleading. The “I” is an abstraction. People spend one-third of their life sleeping. They spend about twelve hours daydreaming. Most do not know they are pavlovian like dogs. Moreover, people do not realize how much they are influenced by the unconscious state. The “I” is mostly irrelevant.

Humankind has evolved into a rationally dominant being anchored by a binary system of knowledge: black/white, birth/death, good/evil, up/down--- In each binary, there is a hierarchy, such as light over dark, for example. Some seek peace in religion. Unfortunately, war is the opposite of peace.

In this work, I reinterpret the Cyclops’ myth using the character of Polyphemus as a metaphor. The Cyclops eye is represented as the third eye. Polyphemus is aesthetically represented with two eye sockets. However, he has one eye in the center of his forehead which is a conduit to a realm where there is no space/time. Albert Einstein believed the past, present, and future exist simultaneously.

Why did the Polyphemus have one eye? According to legend, he made a deal with Hades, the god of the underworld. Having two eyes, Polyphemus exchanged one eye to Hades for the ability to see the future. Thus, he saw the day he would die. Polyphemus had transcended space/time.

Death is an abstraction. A term created as a result of the mind's limited perception of the cosmos. If ants were aware of humankind, they would not build their colonies in the middle of sidewalks. Humankind once thought the earth was flat. Humankind has defined its ontology. (An apple will never realize that it is an apple.) The cat that chases its tail is a fool. Art and the creation of art is what makes humanity unique.

Inspired by Taoist philosophy and Albert Einstein’s E=mc2 equation, these graphite drawings represent an unseen reality. A reality that has no beginning or end like a spiral. Everything in the cosmos is an epiphenomenon of this reality. The mind creates the illusion that we are distinct from the cosmos. We are the cosmos.

Impressions from Found Objects

In my art, I allow my impressions to become visible. Therefore, validating the unseen reality. Plato believed that phenomena did not reflect true reality because the mind does not have access to it. My art is a wonderful synthesis of artist and conduit.

When I was six, I was very curious about nature, especially all of its phenomena. I once asked my mother where I came from. She said, “Child, go out and play into the bright daylight.” I ventured out and followed the bluest cloud. I watched it transform into a horse as it drifted into nothingness. I loved objects that reminded me of other objects, like the man in the moon. I loved objects that were amorphous, like puddles of reflecting water. I was attracted to their unique forms.

My older brother had an uncanny ability to repair trashed televisions and radios. He used discarded mechanical parts. We both were collectors of abandoned and forlorn things. When I was 17, before I learned about found objects being an artist’s medium, I found a child’s doll along the side of a road. It had one blue eye, damaged blond hair, and a hollowed torso. I brought it home because it reminded me of a surrealist image. I covered its asphalt-stained body with black enamel paint. I filled its split torso with steel wool and placed it inside a metal milk crate. I instinctively attached a black light fixture over the crate. The black light created a dreamy, violet haze.

In this exhibition, by using post-minimalist ideas, I have produced art inspired by the work of Joseph Beuys and Eva Hesse. I use a miscellany of materials, such as found objects that include cottonwood (poplar), metal, rubber, plywood, and masonite board. I intuitively connect these materials into a unique and formal context, which is an epiphenomenon of my subconscious mind. There are iconic references to some of the work. Nevertheless, the work requires participant observation, such as self-analysis.

Eva Hesse once said, “[She] wanted to get to non-art, non-conative, non-anthropomorphic, non-geometric, non-nothing….” That is the goal of my art. It is to transcend the hegemony of vision. Phenomena is not absolute in the cosmos. There are only impressions.

2010 - present