Fieldwork (2016)

This series of works on paper incorporates both typical and atypical art materials: acrylic paint and used sandpaper. The geometric shapes that are drawn in acrylic read both as flat two-dimensional forms and as representations of three-dimensional objects floating in a textured field, challenging how one should look at space in a drawing, as well as exploring the radical nature of choosing flatness over perspective. In fact, these shapes reference photo scales and north arrows, important tools in archaeology. During an archaeological dig, for example, photo scales and north arrows are placed in excavated sites to provide measurement and orientation in photo-documentation. The distressed pieces of sandpaper that serve as the ground for Greg’s drawings are actually recycled from the various stages of preparing and finishing his paintings on wood panel. For him, these drawings are a way of looking at how traditional methods of recording archaeological finds can overlay the physical evidence of work that has taken place in his studio.

During the initial stages of developing Fieldwork, Greg found that photo scales and north arrows embodied the spare, elegant, and formal graphic qualities reminiscent of early Modernist painting and sculpture. Sandpaper cut into quadrants reminded him of soil in a sectioned archeological site. What has always been at stake for both archaeologists and artists—uncovering and understanding our essential humanity—became clear during the process and ended up underpinning the concept behind these simple works on paper. Ultimately, this series became a way of performing archaeological fieldwork on Greg’s own practice as an artist.

General artist’s statement

“In large part, my work tries to look back in order to look forward. To do this, I investigate the interface of art, archaeology, and anthropology as well as the influence of ancient and “primitive” cultures on contemporary art. Prehistoric stone structures and artifacts, Informalism, the Earth Art movement, and the study of shamanism are some of the key influences on my practice. In many of my paintings and drawings, I reference the graphic qualities of Neolithic and Iron Age archaeological surveys and sites within an abstract language.”

“The palette and textures within my works often allude to that of the rural fields in which dolmens, wedge tombs, cairns, and standing stones are found. I’ve also begun to investigate the conventions of archaeological fieldwork and museum display. My stone beehive hut sculptures are presented as both scale models one might see in a history museum and as abstract works in their own right. My stone figures and petroglyphs leverage both ancient imagery and 20th century Primitivism while attempting to explore a connection between an authentic experience of the past and a museum-mediated one of the present. All of my sculptures live within the ambiguous zone between art and archaeological display.”

“My longstanding fascination with the deep past raises questions about what we seem to know—and ultimately don’t know—about our origins. My work also raises questions about our institutionalized and accepted norms of knowledge concerning prehistory and antiquity, and suggests that in order to understand where our culture of aesthetic objects is headed, we must know from where it has come.”

For more information about Greg Slick and to see more of his work, follow this link:

http://www.gregslickart.com/