RECLAIMED: ART AND LIFE
Ben Daniels
July 10 – September 1, 2024
ARTIST RECEPTION: Wednesday, July 17, 5:30 pm
Artist talk at 6:00 pm. Free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be provided.
ARTIST STATEMENT
I have always found it difficult to write about my work, for these pieces are ever-changing dialogues, stuck in flux.
My 3rd exhibition is an attempt to confront chronic pain, existentialism, ideas of beauty, and the traditions of art. A major aspect I aim to express are the visceral qualities of my chronic pain and joint instability. Embodying my symptoms of chronic illness, I combine my painting experience with assemblage techniques to show the sublime in all things - a jumble of art and life.
Textured with salt, fire, water, and sand. Stained with coffee, tea, paint, and ink. Braced with wires, nails, thread, and glue. Punctured, scraped, burned, sliced, and soaked. To drape, hang, and wrinkle within its own folds. A lived experience – from self to viewer.
Aesthetic forms play within each work – gestalt through the many materials and mediums. Layers built up, tagged with playfulness and a dimensional breath: each piece lives differently depending on the viewpoint. - I have always found it difficult to write about my work, for the process is more open than closed. All things are allowed when the work is confronted, and all forms lost; it is only then one realizes - it is finished
