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ABERNETHY, Leigh
Deconstructing Rapture
Catalogue Essay for the occasion of the exhibition: URGENT CALM
October 2005
In a society increasingly obsessed with the instantaneous gratification of the consumable graphic, and an art industry that is being compromised by this market driver, Hobie Porter’s oil paintings stand apart. They appear to reach beyond their own facade, asking of us deeper philosophical questions that explore the complexity of the rapturous moment. This group of work calmly demands the attention it deserves.
Porter alludes to rapture not being a pure thing, or even a singular thing, but more a way of seeing. Within the most prosaic of moments, one can find rapture.
Porter’s meticulous works command the viewer to pause, to question the scope of life beyond the self. His message implies that we are all part of something great, as opposed to being individually great. There is an insistence for calm within the speed of our lifestyles, and an urgency to spend that time in contemplation. His images are imbued with a meditative quality, symbolically representing ‘nature’ in abstracted stasis.
A metaphor for life is amplified by the collection of works Porter has created. Taken individually, each painting would appear a still life or landscape. But as a group, the undercurrents of his philosophical musings become apparent. As a group, these images are a contemplative reflection of what society has, what we are looking for and what we are in danger of losing. The leaves are separated from their tree, already on their continuum to death, their life cycle journey. And even though the vessel is fragmented, it is always part of a whole. The dissolution of the object reveals its metamorphosis.
What has been rendered here? A series of delicate objects in relief against a distant horizon, or a narrative between an object and its environment? The subject matter itself reflects Porter’s perception of the precariousness of emotion, the delicacy of nature, the fragility of our beliefs. Porter has delved back into history, retraced the evolution of religious iconography, and drawn on the icon as a mechanism to extract new meaning. These iconic forms are ordinary, actual, and when you consider them as icons, their value alters significantly.
This collection also represents the journey of the artist to abandon himself to the act of making. To discover the act of precision as a meditative experience, a solitary experience and a contemplative experience.
But not an isolated experience.
Author: Leigh Abernethy
Drought: One and Many, oil on linen, 43x58cm, 2005