Nature Vivante Series
Lately, I have been thinking about my artworks as land portraits. Since we began making art, we have made portraits of those who were important to us. Portraiture is a great example of how western culture has forgotten how to co-exist with the natural world. When I observe portraiture throughout western history, I can see that we have moved from capturing images of what we cared about in the land, (such as cave painting of hunts), to spirits we worshiped that were separate from the lands (such as gods, political figures and movie stars). We make portraits of our families, and ourselves, but rarely do we acknowledge that we are part of a bigger sentient eco-system.
When artists did bring attention to plants in painting, it has usually been as “nature morte”. Looking at nature as either a landscape with little attention to the details of its sentience, or as dead objects to be studied. But what kind of images can I make that celebrates the incredible vibrancy of the natural world that presents itself when we take the time to listen with our senses? How can I represent the life inherent to nature in a way that does not seem chaotic to humans?
“Nature Vivante” or land portraits are directions I am experimenting with. Land portraits are unlike landscapes in that they bring focus to vibrant living details within the sentient land.
The more I explore the nature around me, and delve deeper in the hidden language of plants, the more I realize that I belong to their land. They are the protagonist of a hidden life that is rich with spirit and personality. Their breath and voice are so subtle that they remain silent to those who do not know how to listen. Their power remains invisible, yet alters all life that rely on them. They are powerful agent of hidden change, without which we will die. They are food, medicine, and I am learning to understand that they are family, they are home. Yet, we take them for granted and forget to nurture them.
I am trying to capture the beauty and essence of individual plants. I want to bring our awareness to the incredible beauty of these natural misunderstood creatures, by celebrating them.
Nature vivante explores plant portraiture. In this series, I am experimenting with bringing details of the natural world into focus. I hope you enjoy the results of this exploration.
Four Seasons is a series focused on the incredible richness of the seasons.
Imprint series
I am a big fan of Hilma af Klint. For the e-motions and e-print series, I used a similar method. She created experimental automatic drawing as early as 1896. Like her, I use photoshop filters in specific sequences to make invisible forces of the images emerge. I am interested in spirits, so I explore the worlds of culture, religions, atoms, the senses and plants.
I have to wonder. Why wouldn’t humans have evolved in similar ways? Why wouldn’t our bodies have adapted to the elements unique to the environment we live in, such as air, water, magnetic and other fields, heat, wind, etc. Why wouldn’t humans have adapted and developed unique body languages specific to the terrains of the regions they inhabit?
What if desensitization is a means to prevent people from becoming self-aware and self-actualized? What if we are as humans meant to have an embodied individual and collective self?
What if our search for extra abilities via technology is only a means to colonize the capacities of highly sensitive people and animals by replacing natural capacities with synthetic ones. I need to decolonize my understanding of other sentient beings’ consciousness.
Electronic spaces can be places of spiritual discovery. e-scapes explores the beauty hidden in digital processes. Digital processes have become impressions of the immense forest of that is my mind.
Each e-scape is perhaps seen as an escape but I experience them as a voyage into the landscapes of the unconscious.
Each series expresses a different door of perception, imagining the qualities of quantum dimensions and reality.
Alx Bal 