Gary Spearin's self-proclamation about his role on his personal website as an artist "to make what is invisible visible; to create something visible that summons the invisible" is an interesting statement about his postmodern meaning-making style. Not only does Spearin re-defines lines and strokes in a way quite expressionistically post-modern but he embraces viewers in a meaning-making process which does not end by a casual view online of his works or long reflections in an art gallery. This drift, so to speak, into a whirlwind of meaning-making and re-interpretation upon each "visit" is only emphasized in recent exhibitions. Consider iNifiNiTi.
Spearin adopts finer nuances of installations, shapes and lines in iNifiNiTi. (The very combination of characters in iNifiNiTi suggests subtler meanings beyond what could be inferred at first glance. Ironically, "iNifiNiTi" is probably read "infinity" but on closer examination might be read – upon delving deeper into project's paintings and beyond mere wordplay – as endless representations and/or recollections of meaning.) Spearin borrows distant expressionistic strands in his iNifiNiTi project which deludes viewers – on- and offline – into conceptual designs inferable and extricable from an "impressionistic" view.
That, however, is confounded by non-straightforward dates (hinting at abstractness), lacy lines and strokes (possibly suggesting endless quests for meaning) and juxtapositions (suggesting underlying, commonalities in gallery installations).
iNifiNiTi is only indicatory of an in-progress series of paintings whose meanings cannot be unlocked only upon deeper reflections but by further engagements over extended psychological phases.
Guido van der Werve
Guido van der Werve's background is an essential, initial resource in order to place his works within an adequate filmmaking context. In fact, van der Werve's diverse background in industrial design, archeology, music composition and Russian literature informs his video installations and filmmaking career. Overall, van der Werve seems not to find his voice until his signature series of numbered works which, indeed, highlight basic features in visual imagery conception in his filmmaking projects.
Most notable of all, van der Werve has managed to combine his classical musical education and running interests in a series of films which mark his personal sense of endurance. This is evident in his Nummer twee, Nummer drie, Nummer vier, Nummer zes, Nummer acht, Nummer negen, Nummer twaalf and Nummer dertien. The unique features of raciness, collagic combinations, constellations and physicality distinguish van der Werve's visual compositions in his numbered works. In Nummer negen, for example, he shows his physical endurance in setting out to North Pole and creates "enduring" visual compositions of Man-Nature duality. A similar Man-Nature duality is laid out in Nummer acht in which he walks in front of an iceberg, registering an iconic cinematic image of an actor against a natural barrier such as a mountain ridge or a canyon. Tapping into his musical background, van der Werve combines piano dynamics with a chessboard in Nummer.
The interplay between different components in van der Werve's works is, in fact, an interesting critical element which needs further elaboration for deeper insights.
Thomas Kneubühler
Thomas Kneubühler's projects capture his visual passions. Land Claim. Days in Nights. Under Currents. Electric Mountains. Private Property. All projects are an attempt to re-imagine conventional elements in nature (land, days, nights, and mountains, for example) into freezed frames of metamorphoses. Kneubühler's frames span as broad views as possible of captured scenes. That is, Kneubühler's photography aims not to document metamorphosed forms of life such as are typically in documentaries but to offer presentations of natural visual compositions in different conceptions.
In Land Claim )"Under Siege" #3 [chopper], 77 x 103 cm), for example, Kneubühler captures a landed chopper against a night sky. The whole terrain is indefinite. No Man's Land. One conscious interpretation is of a conventional element, i.e. land, appropriated by modern machinery. Yet, one possible unconscious interpretation is of a whole new planet being appropriated by modern humans. The whole scene is reminiscent of a moon landing.
In Electric Mountains (electric#1, 96 x200 cm), moreover, Kneubühler manages to capture an insightful juxtaposition between electric lights on mountains and fader shades (also electric lights) beyond visible mountain ridges – which only emphasizes gravity of modern situation when "looking further and beyond" no longer offers deeper insights into original ways but also to a déjà-vu.
Thomas Kneubühler's projects need to be re-examined in light of an underlying visual intertextuality which weaves a primordial, a modern and an in-between freeze into one visual composition.
