More stories

  • in

    Meditative Faces Emerge from the Staggered Wooden Sticks Forming Artist Gil Bruvel’s Sculptures

    
    Art

    #faces
    #gradients
    #meditation
    #sculptures
    #wood

    September 17, 2020
    Grace Ebert

    “Breathe” (2020). All images © Gil Bruvel, shared with permission
    Gil Bruvel (previously) has spent 40 years practicing vipassanā meditation, an introspective practice that invites judgment-free observation of the mind. The Australia-born artist infuses the philosophies of this decades-long ritual into his variegated sculptures as he forms a series of faces in deep thought. With eyes and mouths closed, the figures project serenity and calmness, serving as “a reminder of what it looks like to be centered and at peace,” Bruvel says of The Mask Series.
    Different in shape and size, the sticks are burned, painted with subtle gradients, and then held in place with wood glue, causing the figures to appear pixelated and as a disparate grouping of squares and rectangles when viewed up close. From a distance, however, “that fragmentation reveals a coherent whole: a face arises from apparent chaos,” Bruvel shares with Colossal. Through their collated forms, the assemblages offer a visual metaphor for the complexity and contradiction that’s inherent to human beings.
    Bruvel also draws attention to the backs of the sculptures, which stray from the figurative depictions of the front to focus on the abstract workings of the mind.  “The assemblage of pixel-like stick-ends conveys the hidden realm of emotion, sensation, and thought—our internal universe. The gradients of color represent the flows of feeling and consciousness that pass through our minds like ripples on a lake, leaving the lake unchanged,” he says.
    Explore more of Bruvel’s meditative artworks and see some works-in-progress on Instagram and Artsy.

    “Floating” (2019), burnt wooden sticks and acrylic paint, 24 × 21 inches
    “Mask #28” (2020), wood and paint, 16 × 16 × 9 inches
    “The Fountain” (2019), wood and paint, 27 × 19 × 23 inches
    “The Fountain” (2019), wood and paint, 27 × 19 × 23 inches
    “Moonlight” (2019), wood and paint, 22 × 22 × 21 inches
    “Moonlight” (2019), wood and paint, 22 × 22 × 21 inches
    “Mask #22” (2020), wood and paint, 16 × 16 × 9 inches
    “Mask #26” (2020), wood and paint, 16 × 16 × 9 inches
    “Breathe” (2020)

    #faces
    #gradients
    #meditation
    #sculptures
    #wood

    Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member and support independent arts publishing. Join a community of like-minded readers who are passionate about contemporary art, help support our interview series, gain access to partner discounts, and much more. Join now!

     
    Share this story
      More

  • in

    This Too Shall Pass: How Spanish Artist Escif’s Meditating Woman Lit Up Valencia

     All images © Escif, shared with permission The beginning of Escif’s Instagram post reads, “Yesterday the meditator’s body was burned. With it many things were burned. 4 tons of wood were burned. A year of intense and wonderful work was burned.” Attached to a darkened image of glowing flames, his words are simultaneously reflective, […] More