Beyond the Consciousness of Skill

Kjell Varvin creates installations from the same found objects/materials that he re-arranges for each exhibition. These objects look as though they came from a builder's scrap heap. He constructs these temporary installations from wood, steel, floor tiles, plastic tubing, paper, cardboard, plexi-glass, wire, and tape. He is influenced by the visual aesthetics of the De-Stil, and Bauhaus movements of abstract art. He goes a step further and brings this aesthetic into the three dimensional realm. Angles and planes of objects have to be thought out from viewing at multiple points. this is much more involved that arranging on two dimensional surface. The visual thinking that this takes is akin to viewing a building from different directions. His philosophy of process is self described as beyond the consciousness of skill, because he is more interested in the visual relationships and arrangement of the elements, and how the interact as a whole. I feel that he is interested in solving the arrangement puzzle of achieving balance with the formal elements of texture, shape, mass, and form.

I see a strong correlation between his work and Picasso's constructs and collages, as his installations become three dimensional collages in a particular space. His work relates to cubism and their theory of seeing around the objects in painting/collage into the realm of three dimensional form. He literally takes the Cubist ideal of seeing around, or through the objects into the reality of existence.

This work relates to my constructs/installation work, as we both look to visual relationships of similarity/contrasts in objects or materials as starting points. it is appearent that he chooses the shapes and objects that can be modified to fit the arrangement, thus creating a harmonious balance through asymmetry. That is one of the major processes in my work as I look to find a similar harmony in the elements that finalize a piece. What really attracks me to his work is how he successfully uses negative space between all the elements, and what he chooses to place on the wall in relation to what he builds from the floor. The unattached parts become "attached" through how they interact as a whole in the space. I also like his use of everyday humble materials that can be acquired at almost no cost. The major difference in our work is that I prefer to achieve a finely tuned finish to the majority of my pieces, while he has no interest in displaying finishing skills. My background in furniture restorations has created an inner quality control that is as unconscious for me as Varvin's is for his philosophy of beyond the technical skill.