Of Man and Nature, Layers and Fragments: The Art of Vasken Brudian
By Ara Oshagan
Critics’ Forum – Visual Arts
3/18/2006
Vasken Brudian is an architect and artist. He has held one solo
exhibition, but his work has been part of many group shows across the
country over the past few years. After a long hiatus, Brudian has
returned to the art scene with brand new work and the publication
of a monograph entitled, “Paintings and Collages: Towards a New
Aesthetics.” In conjunction with this publication, Brudian’s work
will be on display in a solo show at the Harvest Gallery in Glendale,
from March 24 to April 2.
Brudian’s work merges a wide array of concepts and ideas and employs a
plethora of media: from architectural drawings, paint, acrylic and ink,
to photography, alphanumeric texts, philosophical writings, poetry,
literature, and essays by well-known writers. And in complement,
the sizes of his works also vary from the very intimate to ones over
20 feet in length. His work is expansive and inter- disciplinary and
does not lend itself to easy categorization. It attempts to strike
a difficult and delicate balance of form, color and concept.
Brudian is best known for his “architectural paintings”-though these
two words are not nearly sufficient to describe what this work is.
These “paintings” are the product of a process that combines free-
hand painting (the paint and brush) with modern technology-based
methods (the computer and plotter). Paint and pencil is used to
begin a painting on a surface, typically mylar. Then, after it is
dry, architectural forms (everything from lines to beams to numbers
to sections of buildings and stairways) are drawn over it with a
large-scale plotter. Then more paint is added, then more plotting.
This process is repeated several times, layer upon layer, until a
dense and multi-storied canvas emerges. Obliteration is used as a tool
of construction here. Each layer fully or partially obliterates the
one before it. It obliterates and also fuses into it and builds on
top of it-constructing a painting in the same way one constructs
a building, perhaps. Technology is inherent to the creation of
these works-they cannot be conceived nor made without the use of
computer technology. The end result of this process is that paint
and architectural fragments are held in tension, the fierce linearity
of bits and bytes tussle with the free-flow of the hand, instinct is
interwoven with technology. Are the two fusing or clashing? This is
a question that is raised by Brudian over and over again.
In his monograph, Brudian includes some of this earlier work but
also adds a host of new work, some of it continuing in the vein of
architectural painting and some of it departing from it completely.
The new work takes its inspiration from various literary works,
poems and essays. These fragmentary textual references are a strong
presence, and they also serve as platform upon which Brudian develops
his explorations of various themes. This series also introduces
photographic images, mainly landscapes. And although at times they
are altered, their essential photographic quality is retained. In
the new work, these large natural landscapes are fragmented and
altered and then juxtaposed with fragmentary texts or abstractions
or architectural paintings. Nature, as a concept, makes itself known.
Where the landscape photograph is brought together with poetic
fragments, the result is overtly and simply emotional. “The Caged
Bird”-which combines a scenic landscape photograph cast to red with
Maya Angelou’s verse about a bird singing of freedom-is idyllic in
its presentation of nature and the bird’s romantic musings about
freedom. “Two Butterflies,” which presents a very similar idyllic
and idealized scene of nature, adds poetics from Emily Dickinson
about waltzing butterflies. It is nearly impossible to not imagine
butterflies waltzing in those trees or to not see the flight of a
bird. These works are like reveries, simple invitations to stop and
contemplate nature, to bathe in the serenity and emotional flow of
verse and landscape.
It’s quite a leap from these pieces to the much more challenging and
compelling ones that bring together nature and man via architecture
and technology. This work is a direct continuation of Brudian’s
architectural paintings but extends their reach significantly. While
the earlier work was based on a process of layering and melding of
diverse forms, Brudian’s new work begins with a clash, a conflict,
but goes further-that is, it turns in on itself. In his best work,
Brudian tiptoes along the razor-sharp edge between man and nature,
conflict and harmony, instinct and technology.
These larger canvases are composed of two totally distinct and
disparate parts-a color-washed photographic scene of nature on one
side and a Brudian-style architectural painting on the other. The
works are juxtaposed and placed next to each other and forced to
inhabit the same frame. The two sides of the frame are pitted against
each other, and while in one moment they are clashing and tussling,
in the next they suddenly seem to flow together in a strange harmony.
The best example of this is “/Twisting the Separatix/,” where
underneath a serene row of upright trees (cast to blue) mad
architectural forms crisscross. At first, it seems the ground ends
and underneath the soil, architecture and art begin, i.e. man-the
dividing line, the front is demarcated, the trenches are dug. But then,
those architectural lines and forms begin to echo strange roots-cold,
hard roots-that seem to feed the trees themselves, and suddenly the
two parts of the canvas flow into each other, give and take from each
other. Nature and man are at war, yes, but also at peace and perhaps
even nurturing one another.
The work, at its best, is a constantly shifting perspective, asking
and answering and suddenly losing hold of the answer and questioning
again. The effect is thought-provoking and inquisitive: are the two
sides clashing or complementing each other? What is the relationship
between the natural and the man-made? These are the critical questions
Brudian poses in his work.
Brudian’s monograph is a bold attempt at embracing a plethora of
diverse and difficult concepts using nearly as many diverse media.
In his best pieces, he manages to strike a delicate balance between a
host of extremes-ideas, forms and colors, all pulling in different
directions. Brudian’s reentry into the art world is refreshing and
welcome.
All Rights Reserved: Critics Forum, 2006
Ara Oshagan has degrees in Physics and English Literature from UCLA
and a degree in Geophysics from UC Berkeley. He used to be a scientist
and now is a photographer. But everything still comes from Literature.
You can reach him or any of the other contributors to Critics’
Forum at [email protected]. This and all other articles
published in this series are available online at
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