Form and Spirit “Art is a form of nourishment (of consciousness, the spirit),” Susan Sontag
This is a virtual exhibition of sculptural and video works, designed around the ideas of form and spirit—an abstraction or essence. Both concepts are clearly realized in the individual approaches of the artists represented. We know of form by observing the physical nature of an artwork and its formal elements—the shape, dimensions, texture, materials used, open forms versus closed, etc.; and even a beam of light transforming a blackened space can be formally interpreted. These assert the presence of physical objects.
Where does form meet spirit? As all objects are composed of matter in the form of atoms, the supposed building-blocks of matter, we can reason that the object is no longer an object but an energy—dots of light surrounded by empty space. Here in the essence and energy of all matter we may find the origin of spirit. The idea of spirit and its manifestation in art is complex, and we can see its embodiment in the myriad approaches shown here. Eight artists engage hand and mind to render evocative forms, whether stationery--as in the objects--or moving through the fluid and dynamic space of the camera’s eye. Some works reflect on cultural, religious or mythic archetypes; others refer to the subtlety or intensity of nature. Some are charged with sensory details; others are silent, opaque, reflective. It is a diverse group yet linking all together is a commonly shared search for essence, and a passion for the process of creating. You as the viewer are invited to find the ideological threads of form and spirit as you observe the works, and we thank you for visiting.
Cynthia Willett Curator and Contributing Artist
I extend my deep gratitude and appreciation to the artists listed below, for contributing their inspiring works to this international effort.
Artists Represented
Kay Polson Grubola—USA Kyle Ann Smith—Italy Magdalena Brzezinska—Poland Mieke Van Os—Netherlands Margot Teusner—Australia Krysten Koehn—Netherlands
Ariane Maugery—France Cynthia Willett—USA
Kay Polson Grubola
Artist website: www.grubola.com
I am exploring feminism through the traditions of Celtic mythology. The cyclic pattern of nature was the basis for the mythology of the Celtic Goddesses. For the Celts the source of life was integrally associated with women, so it would follow that all origins of life were distinctly female. Their link to the seasonal cycles, to power, fertility and death, may partly account for the fact that a single goddess often takes three forms, or aspects – usually maiden, mother and crone. My most recent work focuses on the adornment of the Goddesses; the rings are created using the natural materials associated with their domain.
Kay Polson Grubola The Ornamentation of the Goddess - Corra 3" x 3" x 3.5" 2016 Seed pod, Amherst pheasant feathers, crystals, wood
A Goddess of prophecy who usually appeared in the form of a Crane, a symbol of transcendent knowledge and transitions to the Otherworld.
Photo - Geoff Carr
Kay Polson Grubola The Ornamentation of the Goddess - Niceven 3" x 3" x 3.5" 2015
Quail Skull, pheasant feathers, deer hair, Jasper stone, bone, gold leaf A Samhain witch-goddess, Nicevenn is equated with the Roman Goddess Diana.
Photo - Geoff Carr
Kay Polson Grubola The Ornamentation of the Goddess - Arianrhood 3.5" x 2" x 2" 2016 Clematis seeds, seed pod, Peacock feathers, crystal, Abalone shell Arianrhood is a deity of air, reincarnation and karma. The Goddess’ palace is the Caer Arianrhold (Aurora Borealis). She is the Keeper of the Silver Wheel of Stars, a symbol of time and karma.
Photo - Geoff Carr
Kay Polson Grubola
The Ornamentation of the Goddess - Cerridwen 3" x 3" x 3.5" 2016 Geranium seeds, silk cocoon, silk rove, skeletonized leaf, bee Goddess of Nature, Cerridwen has powers of prophecy, and is the Keeper of the Cauldron of knowledge and inspiration. Her magical cauldron held a potion that granted knowledge and inspiration however, it had to be brewed and protected for a year and a day to reach its potency.
Photo - Geoff Carr
Kyle Ann Smith
Artist website: http://www.marbleworkshop.com/ info@marbleworkshop.com
Much of my work has been an exploration of the idea that all living forms manifest and contain a past, present, future and soul/spirit. Each element enhancing the continuously evolving whole with uniquely rich content and presence. Ting represents the human form existing as container of these ephemeral elements. I was inspired by an ancient Chinese vessel, ting; a bowl shape on 3 legs that allowed for a fire to burn underneath. Some were sacrificial vessels, some used for cooking food. The forms similar, one projected towards the spirit, the other for the physical body. Each entailed a purpose determined by its contents. Fire acted as the transforming force, a life giving catalyst which I interpreted as Time, eternally interacting with the contents—the past, present, future and soul/spirit in the ever changing form.
Kyle Ann Smith Ting 70cm height x 48cm length x 25cm width Statuario white Carrara marble
Kyle Ann Smith Ting (back)
70cm height x 48cm length x 25cm width Statuario white Carrara marble
Kyle Ann Smith Embrace 75cm height x 28cm length x 31cm width Plaster and ground red brick
Kyle Ann Smith Embrace 75cm height x 28cm length x 31cm width Plaster and ground red brick
Magdalena Brzezinska
Magdalena Brzezinska Transition Magdalena Brzezinska
Music: Natasha Vanderlinden; Dance: Joanna Brzezinska 2020 https://youtu.be/wGHZcj-ir38
The author has tried to capture the essence of dance, viewed as the perfect blend of form and spirit:
the transition of form through space; the ephemeral; the evanescent. The dance is also a metaphor for another transition: of a human being passing through time, where the middle-aged author looks back at her own youth reflected in her teenage daughter performing the dance.
Mieke Van Os Artist website: https://miekevanos.com/
I like working on scale, expressive lines, basic shapes. Shapes as a kind of ritual. I lay down elements based on one or more previous elements. Together they form a modular organic whole. As if shapes can be added or removed at any time. Just as nature can expand and contract. Referring to repetitive wave movements in the cycle of seasons repeating itself for a thousand years. I often have some kinds of rules in my work and chaos at the same time. Connected form-in-form. Free to jump with. Rules work as liberating for me. I design a framework, an environment in which something that is constantly changing can change. Take the shapes apart, put them back together, create a new shape. A non-verbal dialogue from touch and rearrangement. Captured form-in-form. Order with a twist. There are several ways to arrive at a composition. I experiment with materials. Looking for a non-conventional traditional form, an image with a twist. Being free in materials, with the flow of work, enjoying what comes out of your hands. Even if you know what you want, it always changes. With shifts that just give it its own dynamics, I bring the stacking of shapes and materials to life. Surprisingly.
In fact, every work of art contains a secret: that of its creation. The artist's secret knowledge, which is hidden behind every work as a mechanism behind the dial of a Swiss timepiece. I want to uncover such secrets. The artist's ambitions are strongly colored by the fashions of the times. Artworks express something, something intangible, an atmosphere, a feeling. It is an expression of how the mind responds to things. Bring the inside out. Connecting times together. Everything is related to every other thing. I like to mix things up. Literally too. I like to play with the material and ideas also come from the making itself. I also document myself thoroughly, often just after the visit. Above all, I want to go my own way, apart from labels and old or modern ideas that certain expressions are "more or less". I try to pick mine out and maybe I am naive in that: in the end what suits me will surface, maybe more in the long run‌
Mieke Van Os Gates in the caves of ancient times
75 x 40 cm 2019 Bottles of chewing gum, sisal, rope, dense concrete stones, shellac
In the design process inspired by Potormo’s “Descent From the Cross”
Mieke Van Os
Salvaged 40cmx 20cm 2020 Terra cotta clay, slabs of bathroom insulation, sisal, jute, leather, peeled mandarins, doll wig, molten plastics
Mieke Van Os Narcisssus 1.20cm x 60cm 2018 Tile adhesives, shards of mirrors, strips of tulle, steel wool, strips of linen, wax set on fire, pieces of plinthgold powder
Caravaggio “Narcissus� The sea at Sardene
Mieke Van Os Narcisssus (left) Alternate view
John Isaac, Things that can be are that which we know, detail, 2011
Making mushrooms out of steel and plastics
Margot Teusner Artist website: https://teusnerm.wixsite.com/form-and-spirit
I am a multidisciplinary visual artist. Recently my work has evolved in the theoretical contexts of connective aesthetics and dialogical art. I collaborate globally through social networks, within a democratised notion of connecting with 'creative strangers' to explore what connects us, using modes such as mail art, photography, and literature to produce physical works, exhibited in online platforms.
Recurring themes in my studio work have been botanicals of place and personal stories. Examples are organic forms based on diatoms, symbolic diary’s, and philosophically based didactic work. I work with a wide variety of media, techniques, scale and forms including drawing and painting, metals, mixed media artworks, and large-scale design including furniture, and landscape design. I have developed large scale community and cultural performance-based artworks through working in schools, such as community sculpture, murals and connective activities.
This series of bowls and forms are inspired by the simple organic forms of Diatoms, living in the Swan River of Perth, Western Australia. The glass-like silica cell walls of these creatures form intricate patterns and a multiplicity of often elliptical shapes.
Margot Teusner Diatomaceous 1 45cm x 35cm x 20 cm Steel, Gunmetal blue patina Technique: Etched and dye spun, hand-cut, polished and patinated About one-fifth of the air we breathe is produced by unicellular diatoms. These microscopic algae are one of the largest and ecologically most significant groups of organisms on Earth. The intricate, regularly spaced patterns of the diatom cell walls, which are siliceous nanostructures, uniquely tailored to suit their requirements, are celebrated in the shape, form and surface of this bowl.
Margot Teusner Diatomaceous offering bowl 40cm x 30cm x 20cm 2001
Steel, brass, Gold Leaf, Gun Metal Blue Patina Technique: Surface etched, spun, hand cut and patinated, hot and cold metal construction
The shape and form of this platter is defined by the shape of the diatom, and its surface is pitted in replication of the patterning on the diatom cell wall. Essential to the earth’s oxygen supply and to life on the planet, diatoms give breath to our world through their forms.
Margot Tuesner Diatomaceous series 40cm x 30cm x 15cm 2002 Anodised aluminum, surface etched, spun, hand cut and polished
Margot Teusner Nautilus Bracelet 10cm x 0.3cm x 7cm 1994 Sterling Silver Technique: Brushed, hot metal construction
A symbol of perfection and beauty, this form was Inspired by the form and logarithmic spiral, of the nautilus shell.
Kristen Koehn Artist website: http://www.krystenkoehn.com/
In my practice, I use the action of my own body to subjectively interpret landscapes. I imagine that nothing is closed, that there is no outside or inside. The body is absorbed by the terrain, and everything moves into and through everything else in multiple embedded relationships.
Accordingly, this project (in which I engaged during The Arctic Circle Residency), focused on the dynamic relationship between humans and their contiguous environmental topography and how the nature of this relationship affects the ways in which we perceive our role and responsibility as inhabitants of earth.
Krysten Koehn Likne Svalbard I 2014 Photograph
Krysten Koehn Likne Svalbard III 2014 Photograph
Krysten Koehn Likne Svalbard IV 2014 Photograph
Krysten Koehn Likne Svalbard V 2014 Photograph
Ariane Maugery Artist contacts: http://chaosmos.free.fr https://vimeo.com/chaosmosis
Ariane Maugery Heartquakes - Shifting Walls Video installation on painted wall and China ink diptych on paper of 312 x 150 cm each. Museum Departemental des Hautes-Alpes, Gap, France.
In these two pieces, one strictly graphic, Heartquakes, inspired by ground views, root areas and the other one a sound video and graphic piece entitled Shifting Walls, created from a one-year observation on construction site of a little building of four floors, the spectator is invited to experiment a kind of stratigraphic perception.
Ariane Maugery Heartquakes Each drawing 312 x 150 cm 2019 China ink diptych on paper, MusĂŠe Museum DĂŠpartemental des Hautes-Alpes, Gap, France.
Rather than focusing on an object, these China ink drawing diptych shows in the same time a microscopic view of the real in the variety of details of a roaring and whirling graphic matter mixed in rhythmic quanta and a kind of cartographic view as the distant perception of the garden of Jorge Luis Borges, 'where paths lead off in different directions'. These graphic textures generate a rhythmicity of perception which spread out then in the sound video and graphic installation.
Ariane Maugery Shitfing Walls 2018 Video projections on painted wall 10 minutes
Video extract at the Musée Museum Departemental des Hautes-Alpes in Gap, France, 2020 for the exhibition “Imminentes Evasions” (“Imminent Escapes”):
https://vimeo.com/381622017 Extract 2: https://vimeo.com/237740601 Extract 3: https://vimeo.com/245002948
Inviting to an immersion in a multiplicity of interlinked durations, the video installation induces a sort of vertigo, the sensation to be between dimensions and differential speeds. By giving the simultaneous perception of various temporal dimensions, the coexistence of the flow of duration in basso continuo and the emergence of discreet events, the instant and the duration and to make the now felt particularly intense and multifaceted.
Ariane Maugery Wuthering Black Holes - Into the Cyclone's Eye 2020 Video texture https://vimeo.com/413012989
Cynthia Willett Artist website: http://cynthia-willett.squarespace.com/
My submissions include three recent sculptures. As a connecting thread, I assign the idea of transformation. The materials that best suited my ideas were hydrocal (a high-strength plaster) and clay. The first two works, A Soul and Galatea and Her Dolphins, are composed of separate elements joined by wood pegs and plaster amalgam. After carving the beautiful Carrara marble in Italy, I hoped my plasters would yield similar purity and potential for reflecting soft light and shadows. The building-up process of plasterwork lent itself to different approaches in creating the forms for the assemblages. These included combinations of cast and carved forms, and freeform application to a supporting structure of steel mesh, each element having a specific purpose in the compositions. There is a meditative flow in watching a piece grow organically from its initial state of powder and water through the final processes of refinement—filing, sanding, and polishing. A third piece shown here Untitled 3 is of clay, raw and unrefined, and for me was the best medium for showing the physical manifestation of a thought, a state of mind, or an emotion.
Cynthia Willett A Soul 27.5" x 24" x 8" 2020
Hydrocal
What is the shape of a soul? Making A Soul became an exercise in representing the intangible. This is how I imagined the entity—a large disc with undulating edges meant to suggest motion, fluctuation, floating. The soul is universally understood but seldom depicted, and can never be conceptualized apart from its physical representative. The figure laying supine across the large form is the owner of this soul, transformed from the pain preceding human death to peacefulness and transcendence.
Cynthia Willett A Soul
Alternate view
Cynthia Willett Galatea and Her Dolphins 13" x 15" x 18" 2020 Hydrocal
In the Greek myth, the Neried Galatea rides a shell-chariot pulled by dolphins, and here we see her surrounded by dolphin forms at first meeting. She has escaped from the jealous monster Polyphemus, who has crushed her lover, Acis, under a boulder. Galatea transforms Acis’s blood into a stream of water as it gushes forth and flows to the sea. The event that inspired this piece was Galatea’s liberating dive into a wave. Her dive symbolizes a plunge into a cleansing, healing, and purifying of pain, whether it be physical, spiritual or emotional. Galatea’s passionate and complex story has been portrayed in masterworks since antiquity. Of the many, I particularly love Raphael’s Triumph of Galatea at the Farnesina in Rome; the Met’s Landscape with Polyphemus and Galatea; and in music, Handel’s gorgeous opera Acis and Galatea.
Cynthia Willett Galatea and Her Dolphins Alternate view
Cynthia Willett Untitled 3 8" x 4.75" x 3.5" 2019
Clay and plaster
Untitled 3, a clay figure resting on a plaster cylinder, is the third in a series of clay pieces that show the sadness and isolation of grief. For the series, the medium of clay appealed to me because of its plasticity which allowed for quick and intuitive modeling while finding and fixing the gestures. The wet clay and its associations with the human body, in its purity and rawness, were perfect vehicles for the ideas I hoped to convey.
Untitled 3 evokes one of the types of adversity that precedes a renewal, or transformation.
Cynthia Willett Untitled 3 Alternate views
Thank you for viewing!
For further information, please refer to the contact information shown below each artist’s name.