| Chris Millette |
| |
|
Born: January 17, 1986 in Northampton, Massachusetts, U.S.
I once found a red bell in the forest.
It was being buried, ever so slowly, by leaves and soil.
I pulled it from the ground and cleaned it off. It rang – a tinny, thick, soil ring.
I brought the bell out of the woods and hung it from a chair that I was making. I would ring the bell while working.
A few weeks later, some friends and I carried the chair into the forest. When we placed the chair down the bell was missing, lost along the trek.
I never found the bell.
 |
| |
| 关于此艺术家 |
I am amazed by the intricacy of decomposition. As objects/things/matter return to the earth, they break apart in such beautiful ways: the forms, colors, lines, and textures in a rotted trunk, a decaying carcass, a crumbling mountain, and a dilapidated building. Beauty here is twofold: it lies in the past, and in the potential of these things.
Consider a shard of brick, moss-covered, lying in the forest. How did this brick end up here? What structure was it a part of previously? Who used that structure, and for what? Where was the brick produced? Where was the mud dug, and how long ago? What lived in the mud before it was removed and made into a brick? Geologically speaking, how did a deposit of mud form in this location? The questions and the possibilities are endless. These pieces of the world’s past are irresistible to me. There is a magic about them that stems from their mystery.
Such things are old, breaking, disintegrating. But this collapse is simply the basis for new growth. The tree will return to the soil from which it grew. The carcass will be consumed and feed a new web of life. The crumbling mountain will spill itself into another landscape. The old building will break into pieces and be reclaimed by the earth.
Our sense of permanence as individuals, as a culture, and as a species is mistaken. The only permanence is our connection with all that is around us – our impermanence. Just like the rotting tree, our bodies will disappear into innumerable new forms. The ruins of our civilizations will eventually be swallowed by the hills. In time even our species will die out, to be replaced by other, newer life forms. These processes are inevitable.
|
| |
| 按此以放大图像 (假如你已上传更大的图像) |
| |
Dryrot
2008 First Edition: 22 woodblock prints 110 x 170 cm |
|
This image was derived from a small, rotten piece of wood - dry and very delicate. I enjoyed carving an image of rotten wood into a block of pristine birch plywood. |
Untitled (Self Portrait)
2007 Oil and mixed media on paper 84 x 147 cm |
|
This was a breakthrough painting for me, in which I rectified personal concerns about the combination of figurative and abstract painting. I worked furiously on this piece for only one afternoon and knew that it was finished. |
Emblem
2007 First Edition: 40 woodblock prints 56 x 76 cm |
|
This print was hugely influential for my most recent series of woodcuts. The carving techniques that I used in all of my displayed prints stemmed from this first serendipitous print. The design was drawn from the marks on the bottom of a friend's ceramic cup- so I owe him a debt of inspiration. |
Ruins
2007 Steelplate etching 38 x 28 cm |
|
| |
Chair
2007 Wood, scrap metal, found materials Dimensions variable |
|
I built this chair completely from salvaged and gathered materials- both natural and manmade. I add new parts whenever I visit it. |
Ship
2007 Oil and mixed media on paper 76 x 91 cm |
|
In this painting I was exploring the possibilities of combining oil paint with other materials on paper. I like the painterly-graphic quality that this painting has. |
La Mandorla
2007 Water based paint |
|
I spent the summer of 2007 volunteering at farms in Tuscany. I painted this mural on a farm/outdoor theater, above the main stage.
|
La Mandorla
2007 Water based paint |
|
(Detail of the mural) |
Ziggurat
2008 First Edition: 40 woodblock prints 76 x 56 cm |
|
In this woodcut I attempted to use my common carving technique in a much more delicate scale. The marks are almost imperceptible on the plywood itself, but translated beautifully onto the Arches Cover paper. |
Fungus/Airship
2008 First Edition: 28 woodblock prints 145 x 64 cm |
|
After printing 'Emblem' I immediately began carving this block, which is a little less than human size. The process of carving these sinuous lines was very important to me. |
| |
|
网站: www.chrismillette.com |
| |
| 如果你有兴趣联络此位艺术家, 请按此 |
按此 传送此个人档案给你的朋友 |
| |
|
|