New Work by Christian Bernard Singer

March 20th to May 18th, 2005

Keith & Winifred Shantz Gallery and Donald & Pamela Bierstock Gallery

Opening 2pm to 5pm March 20th ~ Artist Talk 1pm to 2pm March 20th

Tessellated Anamnesis – Patterns of Unforgetting, a two-part installation by Christian Bernard Singer, layers together intellectual, sensual and metaphoric references. The resulting works stretch the boundaries of perception—by combining them with the terrains of dance, sculpture, and mythology. Singer’s use of disparate materials to construct his environment – unfired clay, living moss, video, cast glass – introduces a sensory experience that occurs on multiple levels for the viewer. Tessellated Anamnesis effectively ties together common themes and motifs about mortality, human relationships and environmental stewardship.

The main installation is titled Chaconne de Paeton and is based on a 18th century Baroque dance which itself was inspired by the myth of Phaeton. Simply put, the story of Phaeton is as follows. Phaeton was the son of Apollo, God of the Sun, and a mortal woman. Apollo was very proud of Phaeton and in a burst of fatherly excess promised Phaeton anything that he desired. Phaeton asked for the chance to drive Apollo’s chariot that pulled the sun around the earth. Too late, Apollo realized that he should have imposed some limitations on his open-ended promise but couldn’t now. He tried to dissuade his son and when that failed he then tried to prepare him as best as he could. As was inevitable, the horses sensed the inexperience of their young driver and scarcely had they set out then the horses ran wild. The chariot flew too close to the earth and scorched its surface, burning off forests and leaving the vast expanse of the Ethiopian desert. As the destruction continued and the earth and its inhabitants cried out in despair Zeus, king of the Gods, took one of his thunderbolts and struck Phaeton dead, thereby stopping the chariot and saving the rest of the earth. Apollo’s grief at the death of his son was so profound that he refused to drive the chariot, leaving the earth in total darkness, until he was persuaded by Zeus and the other gods of his duty to the world. While this cautionary tale warns parents of the dire consequences of over-indulgence of beloved children, it also has a significant extended meaning: the custodial responsibility for the environment.

It might then seem that this grim tale would have little place as the inspiration for a dance which was considered highly sensual, wild and exotic dance in nature, with undulations of the body, massive hip movements, flirtations, and at the time "indecent song lyrics". Yet the movements inherent within the chaconne itself underscore the themes brought forth by the myth. The chaconne is a dance that has been described as a staggering realization of cycles that exist on many levels as interactive entities. It was developed at a time when literacy of dance, stories, music and art were expected – at least from the courtiers and those who aspired to be courtiers. When the Chaconne de Paeton was developed, the art of dance was flourishing at the French court of Versailles during the reign of King Louis XIV (1643-1715). Precision, balance and delicacy characterized the essence of the Baroque style of dance. The ballroom dances and court ballets of this era reflected elements of beauty, refinement and control, qualities exemplified in the Chaconne de Paeton.

Singer’s interpretative installation consists of the laying-out of the dance’s pattern on the floor using lush green living mosses. On top of the moss, unfired clay is formed into shapes that demarcate the directions for the dancer as to type of step, hand and arm gestures and pace. A silent video projection behind the installation shows, at reduced speed, a dancer performing the Chaconne. In doing so, Singer uses the elements of the installation to inspire meditative associations in the viewer. Clay and moss, representing the earth, the dance evoking art and the underlying story that thematically links the elements: hubris, nemesis, mortality, despair, duty - all are present.

Enclosure III is a site-specific installation that contains a landscape of sculpted mosses melding with moss-like glass sculptures derived from partial body casts. Surrounded in a terrarium-like enclosure, the constructed environment is profoundly evocative through the sensual experiences of sight and smell. With the figurative forms effectively embedded within the mossy ground the forms become fully integrated. Even though they are fragments there is nothing fragmentary in the feelings they bring to mind. While Chaconne de Paeton has a cautionary element to it, Enclosure III is peaceful and almost celebratory. The artist seems to suggest that humanity and nature should be integrated with each other – that we will return to the earth one day is part of the ongoing cycle and mystery of life. Undoubtedly there is the fear of the unknown and the understandable desire to remain young, vital and living for as long as possible. The artist’s work however, provides a means to deal with this fear and to recognize that one’s individual lifetime is part of something much greater. We do continue, albeit in an altered state. Ultimately, death is not something to be feared. And we can take comfort in the fact that life never really ends, it is merely transformed.

Singer is quite deliberate in his reference to other art forms and in particular to their historicity. There is something a little abject and beautiful about calling on previous artists and art from the past. In doing so (mythology, Baroque dances) he is reinforcing the continuing cycle of life – both of the individual’s life but also of the life cycle of the world itself. The form of the chaconne also reinforces this theme. A chaconne is inherently repetitive. Repetition establishes what is a “thing” to pay attention to. In this case, it is the clay and the moss. The green of the moss is life in its unbridled, fecund state. Clay is malleable – less sexy in its unfired state but also strongly evocative of potential and of stability and firm foundations. Harmony or texture differences are used to delineate the sections. In the same way, his installation, with the layering of materials, reminds us simultaneously of the layering of histories, the passing of time, and the life span of an individual.

While Singer’s work has antecedents with dance we can further position him in one sense as a neo-abstract expressionist. Jackson Pollock added an element of dance to painting by working on the ground and on an enormous scale. Abstract expressionist paintings got larger and larger. Performed rather than created in stasis, they embrace the very feeling of being alive; they create their own atmosphere and ambiance. What Pollock and the other Expressionists were creating was not accidental; it was purposeful. And along with tremendous spontaneity and improvisation their work was always under control. In the same way Singer’s installation might at first appear to be an entirely organic, arbitrary arrangement of materials. But each particular demarcation has significance. Each marking or addition to the work is deliberate and provides an important aspect to the cohesive thematic resolution of the installation.

Singer’s installations are his response to the need to account for something that seems ineffable in experiencing art. In looking at his work, the viewer is often taken over by a kind of mysterious power. We recognize that it's happening, but we don't know how to name it - it's a mysterious power which everyone recognizes but which eludes explanation. He has tapped into an aspect of our collective unconscious, ancient mythologies, Baroque dances, modern technologies – all synthesized to create commentary and celebration of our corporeal, physical experience.

Dance is as primeval as poetry, as atavistic an instinct as scratching images on the walls of caves or shaping small forms from mud and water. The act of stamping our bare feet on the ground, of tapping into the deep life force within the planet with our bodies, is as basic an impulse as speech. Singer has called upon these different art forms to create one unified body of work. Through integrating dance movements within a sculptural art form, the cycles and relationship of one movement to another is paramount – each time you go around a spiral the view is almost the same, but from a different perspective. A sort of electricity passes back and forth between the work of art and the recipient of the art. As such we are charged to remember this and our great connection to history and the natural world around us. Indeed, we are charged by the artist, not just to remember, but to unforget.