“Process, Procedure, Presence”
Creativity as a concept pulls truth from both the left and right sides of the universe; it’s a little magic and a little mechanics. Some artists skew towards raw, Promethean creativity, and others toward more iterative or rule-based modes. There’s no right answer because art has “answers.” But while an artist’s journey has no destination; they will tell you there’s a place, or “pocket,” that combines the perfect ratios of left/right; objective/subjective; imagination/planning; and conscious/subconscious thinking. And while in that place, making artwork feels like ecstasy. It feels like it’s making itself, and that the artist becomes almost a pure medium.
The artists in “Process, Procedure, and Presence” each live and make right down the middle of this wonderful artistic duality, producing magical and uncanny objects combining rules and techniques with inspired and dreamy visions. Each piece in the show is part chemistry and part alchemy, arriving at the most fertile place in the universe: the edge of two things that don’t ever resolve.
Desert Crust
By Andrew Benson
Benson’s studio process is heavily invested in exploring the fringes of graphics programming, how computer graphics work at a fundamental level, and creating feedback loops and processes that allow for organic and emergent forms to develop. These processes are designed in such a way as to allow for a tension between controlled expressions and the behavior of the system itself. The Desert Crust series was developed following his father's passing, as both part of a process of grieving and connecting to his memory. As a potter, his father's life was marked by a strong investment in material and chemical reactions, and the relationship between the hand of an artist and their medium - along with a deep connection with the harsh desert environment they lived in together. Benson approached these works as if working with clay and glazes, allowing for a durational meditation on his own care for materials and how it connected them. The resulting works combine gesture, computer-driven physics, and feedback processes that seek a kind of dynamic equilibrium and bend toward a color palette inspired by the desert, clay, and dry pigments.
Andrew Benson is a visual artist based in Los Angeles, working primarily in digital media, animation, and video. His work is heavily driven by an inventive and experimental process that combines computer programming, gestural interaction, and a painterly approach. This process investigates the basic elements and processes of how images are made, reproduced, and displayed in our present environment. Andrew has a BFA in Painting from the San Francisco Art Institute (2005) and has been working professionally both as an independent video artist and in collaboration with performing artists to create innovative live visual experiences.
