Michele Ogilvie
Personal Bio
THIS work consists of narrative mixed media constructions and large scale narrative
paintings. Philosophically, I seek to comment on principle desire. I view this
as a seemingly common longing for such things as place, meaning, and love. I
use the iconography of various images and objects to represent these themes
metaphorically. For instance, the apple (traced back to ancient story telling)
is used playfully as an iconic symbol of desire. Titles are written as clues
to help orient each piece. The tone can be sardonic or sincere depending upon
the viewer’s relationship to the “Romantic Paradigm” (which
I see as a constellation of idealized, traditional values and beliefs.) The
ambiguity is deliberate.
Globally, the subject of desire is vast. An inescapable predicament
of humankind is involved in the perpetual, transient cycle of having and not
having. Buddhists cite desire as the cause of suffering, and avoid attachment
to earthly things. In contrast, Westerners seek out desire-fulfillment by attempting
to accomplish a list of socially accepted goals that are often grounded in acquisition.
In each case, conditioning, tradition and social paradigms set the tone and
pace of desire.
My approach to making art is an expressive manifestation of heart to hand. Heart
is the metaphysical storehouse of experience, memory and recall. It is where
faith resides. It is tied to the string of desire.
The process of uniting the external with the internal [by the action of making art,] slowly reduces the notion that the self is different from the world, and that the world is different from the self. —Patanjali I.41
ROOTS
Having been born in Kenya, East Africa during the rule of Jomo Kenyatta and
the political uprisings against a form of apartheid, I was initiated into a
world of racial and economic disparity at a very early age. My mother, born
in Antwerp and raised in Brussels, Belgium during World War II, witnessed man's
brutal inhumanities. Her detailed accounts of struggle and survival would keep
me awake and wide-eyed many nights throughout my youth. My father, a Kenya-born
British subject, distracted me with boyhood stories of chasing killer bees and
running from carpets of deadly fire ants with his friends the native Kikuyu
tribe’s boys. His parents were among the first colonials of the British-ruled
country. His views of the political climate in those days where slanted towards
“The Great Mother England.” In the end, because of Mau-Mau uprisings
and Kenya’s impending rise to independence, my parents eventually agreed
it best to flee the continent for “the land of opportunity”—USA.
I was five years old at the time. I started school mid-semester in West Coast
America with a plaid skirt and a shy English accent. I did not fit in; to me
America felt like tract housing. My closest companion was a washed and combed
mango seed I faithfully carried around in a size 6 shoebox. While other kids
were combing the blond strands of their Barbies, I was coifing the fuzz on my
seed. At night it lay with me on my pillow, and was privy to my most detailed
5-year-old dreams. It listened carefully to every concern and complaint and
then expertly whispered solutions back to me.
Decades have passed and it seems I'm still having conversations with the Seed. Only now it is tucked in wall hung constructions and paintings, containing handmade things plus storylines and narratives of Existential ponderings. But one thing I’m certain, a seed is still a Seed.
Time is a succession of individual moments which gradually alters the condition of form. The quiescent forms are those that have been, the uprisen forms are those that are, and the indeterminable forms are those that will be. In all cases the substance is the same. —Patanjali 3.14
INFLUENCES
The East and West Coast Assemblage movements of the 50’s and 60’s—with
artists such as Robert Rauschenberg, George Herms, Betye Saar, Louis Nevelson
and Joseph Cornell—served as influence and point of departure for my work.
The nostalgic and highly personal approach of Michael McMillen and John Frame
later inspired me to expand the sensibility of collecting and arranging found
objects and urban artifacts. Instead, I explore the use of handmade precious
objects as a visual language specific to my experience. In doing this, I left
the pulse of traditional assemblage behind.
MATERIALS AND PROCESS
The material and mixed media I work with are chosen for their inherent expressionistic
and symbolic qualities. At their roots, clay and metal are earthbound materials.
While clay evokes Earth signifier, iron-based metals often originate from fallen
meteors. This phenomenon symbolically associates metal to a metaphysical realm.
Using clay and metal together is another way of reiterating the philosophical
union of opposites.
The use of oil glazes, patinas, encaustic and various other
painterly materials and processes, lend a physical, tactile and gestural quality
to my work. Photography, combined with traditional and digital printing techniques
provide the possibility of multiples, patterning, and documentation. The layering
of visual imagery and mark-making evokes a symbolic connection to past, present
and future–or in other words, memory, recall and dreams.
CONNECTIONS
My goal is to acknowledge Absolute Intelligence as the driving quantum life
force that exists in matter, consciousness and mind. The roots of my quest are
found in Vedic Philosophy, Patanjali, Alchemy symbols, Hegel and Carl Jung.
Each speaks of an interconnection between all people and all things. Each aspires
to a greater understanding of universal consciousness and relationship to the
Absolute. Most importantly, in their own way, each has shed light on a path
towards peace, equanimity and knowingness.
Patanjali spun his philosophy from the 5,000-year old Vedic
traditions of an Eight Fold Path. The path lays out a logical series of restraints
and observances (yamas and nihamas) which guide the practitioner to a path towards
yoking or yoga—which in layman’s terms means the union of opposites.
It is metaphorically represented by the sun and the moon, and is translated
into all conditions and states of being—male/female, presence/absence,
past/future, night/day, etc. The practice of transcending opposites yields a
metaphysical interconnection between all things and all places. The ultimate
realization is that everything folds into Oneness. I am you, you are me.
METHODOLOGY
I investigate and borrow archetype symbols from diverse historic and cultural
backgrounds. The squared circle is an example of an alchemical symbol that expresses
interconnection and wholeness. Alchemists considered the circle and sphere as
emblems of the spiritual self, and the square as a symbol of earthbound matter.
A squared circle represents the union of opposites. Ancient cities such as Rome
and Jerusalem as well as classical, medieval and even modern cities have been
built with this configuration. The symbol also evokes the mandala, an Eastern
motif used for prayer and meditation. In alchemy, it is expressed as a quadratura
circuli or the union of the physical and the metaphysical. I use the square
and circle with these connotations in my paintings and constructed objects.
Another consistent symbol used throughout the work is the vessel
form. It is a symbolic container of Essence. Each vessel is suspended outside
the frame in order to evoke a vulnerable sensation of spirit. My intention is
to confront the standard premise of Existentialism that asserts, “existence
precedes essence.” I suggest the opposite, that is, we are first
the product of our seed and second the sum of our experience. In other words,
an apple seed beholds an apple and all the inherent qualities thereof.
CONCLUSION
I seek out and explore the sensuous and tactile qualities of matter. There is
an attempt to manifest heart to hand by way of gesture and material. Through
this action, the art object becomes a meditation on the principle of desire
in its various guises and materializations. My ultimate hope is to acknowledge
interdependence between all things past and present and to elaborate on an interconnection
between the self, the world and the philosophical search for meaning.