BRIAN USHER
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"As an artist, it can be difficult to tease out the exact moments that inspire each creation; as relationships evolve over time, so does the process of creation come to include influences from many sources. Still, there are elements that run deeply through my work, and which provide a constant point of departure for my explorations.
These pieces are originally conceived as line drawings. The simple gesture of marking a line on a piece of paper creates a space on the page, and the depth & measure of that space becomes something I want to explore. Just as our relationships with others pull us out of ourselves, I imagine the lines on the page being pulled out into space, creating forms of great depth & complexity. The transition between the “space” of the line and the space within the glass, and the relationship between them, is really what I am after.
The implications of that simple line are important to me. What is the line doing? Is it contained within the paper? Does it hover above the surface on which it is drawn? Does it open up new possibilities within the limitations of its space? By extruding the forms into a 3rd dimension, I am able to contemplate these questions. The line on paper becomes a line in space, and the space within the glass becomes a vista, an observation point from which to begin an exploration.
All aspects of the line are explored: the edges, the beginning and the end, the stroke used to create it. An important layer in my thinking is the notion of the mystery of the familiar, and the challenge of looking again at something we think we know, to find new discoveries. The glass provides an excellent medium for these explorations, as the constantly changing play of light through the pieces creates an ever-changing context for the simple line from which everything started.
In the words of Friedrich von Hardenberg, I am seeking to “give sense to the vulgar, give mysteriousness to the common, give the dignity of the unknown to the obvious and a trace of infinity to the temporal.” In exploring the expanded possibilities of the simple objects in front of us, I hope to inspire reflection upon the possibilities we may be hiding within ourselves, waiting to be drawn out of us by the ever-changing contexts of our own relationships."
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