Alexis Rockman

RESEARCH AND INTERPRETATION OF ALEXIS ROCKMAN FROM DOCUMENTS IN CONTEMPORARY ART - NATURE

When researching this artist who attracted my attention from my recent reading 'Documents in Contemporary Art - Nature'. His visual styles reminded me somewhat of the work of Josh Keyes whom I have already previously researched, however with stronger surrealist overtones and originating from a more recognised area of contemporary fine art discursive than Keyes' muralism practice. I found a really well written summary of his drives and motivation on the 'Artworks for Change' website.

"What will the future reveal about our choices and attitudes toward the natural world? In his cinematic oil paintings, Alexis Rockman portrays a fermenting world shaped by human excess and environmental corruption. He depicts the future as a saturated dystopia, in which creatures struggle to survive toxic conditions and the onslaught of invasive species. In the depths of this latter-day, primordial soup, Rockman finds the survivors — feral beasts that emerge from the human era transformed and triumphant. In Rockman’s paintings, we do not see human beings. We see memories and vestiges of them in polluted canals, cascading piles of trash, crumbling monuments and mutated animals. 

 

We see their absence, and the altered landscapes they have left behind. We search for signs of hope in the post-human world and find them in Rockman’s resilient creatures, who adapt and endure, as natural order returns to traumatized environments. Rockman draws us into this vision of the future with vibrant colors and densely-packed compositions. He commands our attention with crisp details set against loose, gestural washes and hazy horizons. He blends fact and fiction, filling his dream-like landscapes with creatures, landmarks and conflicts, both real and imagined. He invites us to experience this headrush of possibility and urges us to care for our planet before it is too late."

 "In “Battle Royale,” Rockman addresses the impact of introduced plant and animal species on wetland ecosystems in Louisiana. His depiction of the ongoing struggle between indigenous and invasive species is described in this museum publication (https://issuu.com/neworleansmuseumofart/docs/aqsummer2012/12, page 13). Many have advocated human predation as a strategy for managing invasive species, such as the nutria, a large, semi-aquatic rodent from South America that has ravaged Louisiana wetlands. Humans now hunt nutria for sport, fur, dog treats and even haute cuisine.  As discussed in this blog post, however, creating human demand for invasive species adds a unique layer of complexity to eradication efforts." 

https://issuu.com/neworleansmuseumofart/docs/aqsummer2012/12 

I really love Rockman's work. His use of limited colour palettes casts his scenes in eerie coloured twilight glows, making them seem transitionary, the dawning and setting of the sun over these times of constant change and upheaval. Yet are are never quite sure if this is the start or end, or perhaps that the two concepts are not mutually exclusive, and that behind every sunset comes a new dawn as the cycle continues. 

In his more surrealist work, 'The Farm', he warns of the potential unexplored effects of genetically modified organisms, and industrial farming practices. In this he uses expected organic forms and familiar natural imagery, and subverts this to create square cows, multi- limbed chickens, morphous tomatoes puddled into a basket and rows and a featureless environment of row after row of planted crops. This sense of being natural yet manufactured unsettles the viewer, as slowly the penny drops that what is represented in this scene is actually deeply troubling, and not at all in accordance with any natural order.