Where Is The River
In the body of work “Where is the river?” I take the viewpoint of an ancient Greek philosopher – Heraclites, who described the condition of Reality as
” […] a state of constant flux”. “[…]
One cannot step into the same river twice […]” the philosopher said and so through my own interrogation of the relationship between the subject (the observed) and object (the observer) I am also searching for the river…for the Reality.
My journey begins with words, a definition, or ‘encyclopaedic’ understanding of a river through all its varied names. When all these are listed and categorized, including its tributaries, they start to flow as if even as text the river must remain in constant flux.
The journey moves to the photographic plane and penetrates every layer of a colour negative. Within this (colour separated) film, the relationship between our subject, our river as Reality, and its indexical mirror image within the photograph creates a story of time and space rich in colour and abstract forms.
From there, I move again to a different level, the macroscopic level of the river’s elements, digitally attempting to penetrate Reality’s ‘hidden’ (to human perception) nature. I search for it there, because as Gaston Bachelard noticed: ‘The object can change its nature, when the grade of zoom changes […]’.
Then finally from this non-empirical level I am led to a scrupulous analysis of the river’s composite pieces. With an almost scientific precision, objectivity is pushed to its limits and aesthetic considerations put aside in order to satisfy my search. I proceed with almost meditative-like observations of compositions of conditions, which have to meet together to manifest as something we perceive as a river. As Buddhist thinkers say, when one stands away from the river he sees the river, but when one comes closer he sees water, stones and a river bank. But at that moment – the river seems to have vanished. That is of course an insight that could be made about the whole of reality… so at the end of my search I find myself once again at the beginning and I am left with the question – “Where is the river?”
In the body of work “Where is the river?” I take the viewpoint of an ancient Greek philosopher – Heraclites, who described the condition of Reality as
” […] a state of constant flux”. “[…]
One cannot step into the same river twice […]” the philosopher said and so through my own interrogation of the relationship between the subject (the observed) and object (the observer) I am also searching for the river…for the Reality.
My journey begins with words, a definition, or ‘encyclopaedic’ understanding of a river through all its varied names. When all these are listed and categorized, including its tributaries, they start to flow as if even as text the river must remain in constant flux.
The journey moves to the photographic plane and penetrates every layer of a colour negative. Within this (colour separated) film, the relationship between our subject, our river as Reality, and its indexical mirror image within the photograph creates a story of time and space rich in colour and abstract forms.
From there, I move again to a different level, the macroscopic level of the river’s elements, digitally attempting to penetrate Reality’s ‘hidden’ (to human perception) nature. I search for it there, because as Gaston Bachelard noticed: ‘The object can change its nature, when the grade of zoom changes […]’.
Then finally from this non-empirical level I am led to a scrupulous analysis of the river’s composite pieces. With an almost scientific precision, objectivity is pushed to its limits and aesthetic considerations put aside in order to satisfy my search. I proceed with almost meditative-like observations of compositions of conditions, which have to meet together to manifest as something we perceive as a river. As Buddhist thinkers say, when one stands away from the river he sees the river, but when one comes closer he sees water, stones and a river bank. But at that moment – the river seems to have vanished. That is of course an insight that could be made about the whole of reality… so at the end of my search I find myself once again at the beginning and I am left with the question – “Where is the river?”