Gustav Metzger
I came across this artist when i walked past a poster of his exhibition, neon greens and pinks were shouting out at me and forced me to stop and take a closer look.
This particular exhibition was called Liquid Crystal Environment. Heat-sensitive liquid crystals are placed between glass slides and inserted into projectors. The heat causes the crystals to change colour and morph into new shapes. This work is similar to that of Klari Reis’s, her work is made in petri dishes, though the material she uses is paint etc. and Metzger blows his projections up to a huge scale, if you compare an image of work from each artist the result is quite similar. This shows that it is possible to recreate the visual effect of nature if the artist chooses to. Reis is not trying to recreate nature though, she too like Metzger is inspired by science and chooses to use that to create something that is reminiscent of natural forms.
Metzger’s work surrounds you; the darkened room forces all your attention on the work, making it almost hypnotic. It is like a sensory environment, where one can get lost in the colours, shapes and in this case, motion. Metzger is interested in destruction and growth, this piece is almost like nature sped up, something that’s so beautiful can be gone within seconds, and then can just as easily reform again.
However the work becomes less of a natural process when you realise its being controlled by a strict computer system. But the images are still left to chance in the fact that you can’t know the exact shape that will form next. Liquid itself is a temperamental medium which you can’t control completely, which then goes back to ideas about the power of the sea and the possibility that nature can be destructive if and when it wants to, and man is left powerless.
