Intelligent Design

When the concept of an idea takes on its own direction during the execution and creates an entirely different result, it’s a most satisfying development to me. For weeks I had been thinking about how best to transform a small mixed media painting into larger dimensions by adding a meaningful counterbalance of some sort, in an attempt to elevate an otherwise reasonable image into a more substantial art project. When the idea finally had developed in my mind, and I started tracing it out on paper, it turned into a self-contained work that is still relevant to the series of works that I am creating lately, yet in an entirely different movement of design.

This work represents the origin of the controversial concept of “Intelligent Design”. Whatever opinion one holds about it, this is the representation of how it started…. scattered impulses start to form structured unity. The relationship between the pieces is not clear yet and still disorganized, a ramble of incoherent transmitters. But there is the idea of the human creature forming. The viewer decides whether it continues to develop into belief or crumbles into rejected abandonment.

The human prototype that I used is a bone-setting mannequin, believed to be invented by Hieronymus Fabricius (1537-1619), Italy’s foremost surgeon in the late 16th Century who devised operations for tying arteries and correcting spinal deformities.

The Fragmentation Of Intelligent Design I mixed media collage 22" X 30" Chris De Dier
available from the artist. call for pricing. http://www.chrisdedier.com/

Holy Cow

The need of the primitive mind for supernatural help, support, guidance, etc. has fuelled human creativity throughout history and is one of the richest and most ancient sources for anthropological studies. Different cultures came up with their own individual interpretations about the origin and destiny of the Universe and of humankind. Even today, scientists have not assembled all the pieces of the puzzle yet, although with the help of phenomenal advances in technology during the last decades, they’re getting closer to a logical theory that is based on fact rather than fantasy. Where will that leave the Gods? Will there still be a place for them in our cultures? Will they still have any influence over our cultures? And how will changing beliefs shape the creative expressions of artists when those times arrive?
As this series of current artworks further develops, I suddenly realize how deep contemporary culture is ingrained in my/our way of thinking and how difficult it can be to break through the boundaries that limit our perceptions. In religious iconography for example, to stay within the subject: looking at depictions of Aztec or Mayan Gods, it takes an effort to understand the visual information that they provide. What we nowadays experience as alien, was accepted as very normal and clear to the people of that culture. How does one transfer the mind seeing the world as they did? Is it even possible?

Devine Bovine   mixed media on paper   9" X 8"   Chris De Dier
availabale from the artist. call for pricing. http://www.chrisdedier.com/