“Cogito Petrisséur”
Nature shapes blending into each other in this wood sculpture
When the self is kneaded with matter
Academic question: How can material experiences in a creative process based on flow elicit and communicate non-linguistic cognition
Cogito petrisseur is about "kneading" the self with the material - a kind of poetry of touch, like when an industrial worker uses his hands to grasp, rub, weld and shape. This project was to lead, through various creative exercises and strategies, to 2 finished "works" that were to be exhibited. I describe one of the works in this article. The other work will be described in a separate entry.
Flow and play became important tools. Flow occurs when you forget time and place and are just completely present in what you are doing. I experienced this when I stopped thinking about how something should look, and instead followed curiosity and sensory impressions.
As a former mountaineer, I experienced the climbing rope as personally meaningful to work with as a material. I melted, cut and pressed it against different surfaces, and let the properties of the material guide the process. I developed a method where I alternated between creating 3D objects and 2D prints - a kind of dialogue between body, material and expression. This released performance anxiety and gave me a freer and more intuitive way of working.
Through this process I gradually I noticed that my expressions had something both beautiful and disturbing about them. I connected it to bodily experiences of pain and vulnerability - and to the insight that we humans are also nature, matter and perishable. The artworks, which show ropes wrapped around stones and trees, can arouse wonder, recognition - or perhaps even discomfort - without needing to be "explained". The background was a personal experience: a fall in the mountains where I almost lost my left foot. Seeing my foot partially torn off made a strong impression. Through creative work with hands and materials, the expressions created a recognition and an opportunity to express and process this - not with words, but through form and feeling. Art became a way of understanding and sharing the ineffable.