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The Imagery |
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The Imagery |
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A major focus of my artistic endeavors examines the human condition. In the past my work has frequently dealt directly with specific socio-political issues of the day. The current series delve more into the past than the present. These pieces are visual representations of concepts and ideas that originated when I was studying history at the Freie Universität in Berlin Germany in the mid-seventies. I am intrigued by and drawn to the ubiquitous and universal images that have been left behind by ancient people and their cultures. I make it a point to visit rock art sites and study the pictographs (drawn or painted images) and petroglyphs (chiseled or pecked images) wherever I may be. I am often struck by their similarities despite sometimes being separated by thousands of miles and literally dozens of millennia. As a rule I attempt to reproduce the graphic images as accurately as possible. Often I purposely combine images from widely disparate ages, cultures and locations, highlighting similarities that bridge a vast gulf of time and space. These disparate images, combined into a new composition, create a novel vignette that tells its own story. |
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| The concept of layering of information is central to the sandcast sculptures. During the pour several related images are laid into the mold and into the casting. In some pieces smaller castings of symbols and fetishes are set onto the surface while the glass of the main pour is still molten. In others an additional image is chiseled or sandblasted into the annealed casting in order to complete the visual interplay of figures and symbols. At their most complex these pieces are akin to a glass book where the "reader" can see and view all the pages at once. |
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These pieces pay homage to the ancestors of civilization. |
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© Copyright 1999 by Vitroglyph, Inc.™ and Henner Schröder |
