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ARTIST
STATEMENT:
Architecture
is in many ways, the most social of human endeavors. It combines
the knowledge of science and skill of the crafts person with
the human need for shelter and sanctuary. Architecture has become
the embodiment of society's goals as expresses for the individual.
As a species we have evolved our dwelling needs from the spot
of protection for the individual, be it cave or bush, to the
many and varied forms of dwellings that we call house and home.
With few exceptions these structures provide us the sanctuary
we need, and the same time allow us to communicate both physically
and visually with our fellows. This duality of open and closed
seems at the heart of the social implications of our buildings.
A door ajar is indeed a powerful symbol of this dual nature.
When we bolt our doors, shutter our windows, shutter our windows,
bar all means of intercourse with society, for whatever reasons,
we alter the balance we have established within this private/public,
open/closed social agreement that we have made. To take this
public symbol of our private needs and close its eyes, negating
the struggles of civilization, is to retreat to the nervous safety
of the cave. When human beings are forced to close out the society
they have created in order to physically survive, it is cause
for the deepest alarm in all of us. As someone whose primary
engagement with the world is through vision, I am stunned by
what this closed city of Belfast must do to all of the senses
of its inhabitants. I am caused to contemplate the ways in which
this tyrannical visual oppression must inform each decision,
made to realize the implications of causing a generation to be
born into this environment, an indelible visual heritage. To
look at Belfast, Northern Ireland is to see a society so torn
from its fundamental goals that one does not need to know the
politics to be thoroughly shaken and made afraid. It is the unrelenting
visual manipulation of the people caught in this situation that
I address with these sculptures. As a sculptor these reliefs
function as black and white photographs. The visual inspiration
has been the photographs of Belfast in newspapers and books.
No doors, no windows, no openings left unguarded. Every thing
seems closed and afraid. As an artist they function as a political
statement, an aside from my major work. An invitation for you
to share my views through a visual dialogue. As a human they
say that I want peace for a people who have suffered needlessly
for too long. DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDouglas Holmes - San Francisco, California
1983 |
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