Harry Geffert and James Sullivan: Natural Translation
September 25th – January 23rd 2011
Harry Geffert and James Sullivan: Natural Translation
Over the Fence, 2010. Harry Geffert. Courtesy the artist. © 2010
Harry Geffert's recent work centers on small branches, twigs, and seed pods that he finds in landscapes and proceeds to painstakingly transform them into individual small bronze forms. The delicate individual items are joined with numerous other similar castings to create larger, more complex organisms. When the entire group is joined and displayed on a wall, the surface relief appears to be that of a vast landscape. Viewers can approach the works intimately to wonder at the delicate workmanship of the artist and nature, or view at a distance, allowing the details to unify and transform into a forest or prairie.
2 Rocks, 2007. James Sullivan. Brass. Courtesy the artist. © 2010
James Sullivan works in a variety of media but creates sculptures and drawings that derive from, or refer to, human forms and natural objects. In Sullivan's figurative work, human forms are created from a mixture of plaster and hay. The basic shape is retained through the process, but human features soften or are eliminated by the artist. When viewing the simple hay and plaster creations, along with their simple poses, one cannot help but think of standing Egyptian mummies. In Sullivan's less depictive work, he creates small, table-top "stones" out of various metals. These objects are created through a high-tech rapid prototyping machine or the age old process of manipulating sheets of thin metal by hand. Though using very different processes, the end products have their origins in nature.