As artists, we solve problems. Solving the problem may come with the aid of technology or the guiding hand of a mentor met or admired. Maybe an experience has shaped us or is in need of a response. Although the solution manifests in many forms, it comes from finding ways to organize the world, connecting what’s inside us with what’s outside. It’s a translation of thoughts, feelings, and beliefs that are made tangible through our lens-based work.
Martin Klimas had several problems. How do you show beauty and chaos existing simultaneously in the same image? How do you show the transition from one state of being to another? How do you create, preserve and reveal a “sculpture” that only exists in a fraction of a second?
Taking clues from Harold Edgerton and Eadweard Muybridge, Klimas extended their technological advances of braking action down into single frames and applied this to the traditional subject of the floral still life.
Although his subjects vary from cheap figurines to powder pigments, the Flowers series provides the solution he was looking for. It is also his most enduring work to date, one that he goes back to again and again.
Flawlessly arranged flower vases are shot by steel bullets and captured at the moment of their destruction. When hit by the projectiles, glass vases shatter, and ceramic and stoneware vases burst into large fragments. What interests Klimas is not so much the moment of impact, but the transformation taking place in one seven-thousandth of a second. While the top half of the photograph remains poised in an absolutely harmonious still life, utter chaos has erupted below. The contrast of motionlessness and top speed explodes the triteness of the subject. The simultaneous presence of two distinct states and the improbable serenity of the pictures are positively spellbinding
What problem are you trying to solve with your work? Whatever it is, it’s a good problem to have. It’s one that is unique to you.
Are you using the right medium, the right subject, the right approach? Who are you referencing, and how are you adding to their work?
When I made work, I was trying to solve a problem. How do I make whole a very fragmented feeling of self? I figured it out. But the funny thing is, the problem only revealed itself after I found the solution. This may be true for you as well.