Russell Ferguson
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Russell Ferguson
Biography
Russell Ferguson artist statement for Dada Riven suite:
“The prints, as a suite, comprise a first chapter out of a, projected, large book of Pictures. The pictures have to do with shrines and humanity; our relationship to GREAT NATURE and to our fragile selves; with reasons for memory and longing to visit. Shrines, as I understand them and build them, belong to their place and to no one but everyone; they bespeak our relationship to GREAT NATURE. The prints derive from a long-term Drawing Project with Travel/Pilgrimage at its center. The Drawings, executed before and after travel, wonder and ask what are the actions of the builders of shrines when they own it, i.e., when building is happening? At the center is a journey to ISE in Mei Prefecture Japan, timed to coincide with the twenty year rebuilding cycle at the two shrines. It began as a filial duty, my father that unique mix of Cotton Mather and Benvento Celini, made the same improbable pilgrimage three times in the latter half of the last century, ‘53 ‘73 and ’93. I had to make the first fourteen drawings to understand who I was, bound up with all these stories and longings for unlikely visits. I let that knowledge guide my travel. The road to and from ISE went past Carnac, Kurashiki, Katsura, Chartres, Takayama, Cosanti, Taliesin, Canyons in the American Southwest, le Palais Ideal du Fatcevr Cheval, anecdotal a myth incorporated into a second drawing series (ongoing). Like many others I came to understand the gold on wood beams at ISE. Like many others, drawing and memory in the studio lead to nuanced insights which I relay. The collaboration on lithographic prints articulates and enhances the images and makes them more than the drawings. Certainly, the over tint clarifies the spaces and forms.”
“The prints, as a suite, comprise a first chapter out of a, projected, large book of Pictures. The pictures have to do with shrines and humanity; our relationship to GREAT NATURE and to our fragile selves; with reasons for memory and longing to visit. Shrines, as I understand them and build them, belong to their place and to no one but everyone; they bespeak our relationship to GREAT NATURE. The prints derive from a long-term Drawing Project with Travel/Pilgrimage at its center. The Drawings, executed before and after travel, wonder and ask what are the actions of the builders of shrines when they own it, i.e., when building is happening? At the center is a journey to ISE in Mei Prefecture Japan, timed to coincide with the twenty year rebuilding cycle at the two shrines. It began as a filial duty, my father that unique mix of Cotton Mather and Benvento Celini, made the same improbable pilgrimage three times in the latter half of the last century, ‘53 ‘73 and ’93. I had to make the first fourteen drawings to understand who I was, bound up with all these stories and longings for unlikely visits. I let that knowledge guide my travel. The road to and from ISE went past Carnac, Kurashiki, Katsura, Chartres, Takayama, Cosanti, Taliesin, Canyons in the American Southwest, le Palais Ideal du Fatcevr Cheval, anecdotal a myth incorporated into a second drawing series (ongoing). Like many others I came to understand the gold on wood beams at ISE. Like many others, drawing and memory in the studio lead to nuanced insights which I relay. The collaboration on lithographic prints articulates and enhances the images and makes them more than the drawings. Certainly, the over tint clarifies the spaces and forms.”