Form, as usually defined, involves the creation or recognition of boundaries. Understanding form and how it is generated (morpho-genesis) thus requires the elucidation of the essential boundary elements within the continuum of matter and time. Embryonic development exemplifies the importance of form, which, in this context, has been equated throughout history to divine perfection, to developmental potential, to ongoing evolution, to the result of blind chance and necessity and, these days even to intelligent design. It is possible that these philosophical and political issues actually relate to boundaries, and boundaries in turn relate to power. The idea of form is as much a biological necessity as a powerful ideological tool.
Minimal Landscapes represents an exploration of form in its essence, devoid of distracting elements. The photographic images show black islands forming archipelagoes of explicit and implicit meanings that become imaginary landscapes in the viewer’s mind. The images of Minimal Landscapes are condensations of graded landscapes into distinct boundaries, and the approximations of actual living forms to classical minimal perfection (the sphere, the cube…). They represent the result of a long meditation on the meaning of landscapes following my previous series Embryonic Landscapes. The subjects of Minimal Landscapes are neither static nor deprived of depth. In their now perfect forms, some beautiful and others monstrous, the seed of novelty is present, depicted as subliminal imperfect boundaries, which herald the possibility of change. The power of a landscape lies in the possibilities and permutations of meaning encoded in its essential yet imperfect boundaries. The power of creating images lies in the ability to dictate or restrict their boundaries and thus their meaning.
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