Ray Kass, Broad Channel, Detail
RAY KASS:
BROAD CHANNEL, WRITING ON THE RIVER
AND THE MUSCARELLE POLYPTYCH
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Ray Kass, Broad Channel, Detail |
In BROAD CHANNEL, the result of varied hands and activities is a single field of shimmering light and ñmovementedî water that seems paced in a slow, deliberate rhythm by the repetitive motif series of large ziggurat/vorticella-like shapes. The clean edges of these irregular shapes, which are locked together as a motif of alternating upright and inverted forms seen against a translucent blue light that could be reflected sky, create a monumental contrapuntal structure the complexity of which echoes the complex motivic structure beneath. Foreground detail and the vast, broad space such detail makes comprehensible are held in a delicate balance within this luminous wall of light. BROAD CHANNEL evokes at once natureÍs intimacy and grandeur, localized, minute detail and panoramic sweep on a scale that is almost sublime.
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Ray Kass, Broad Channel |
As in the works of Cage and Okura, the process of development of KassÍ work also imitates the chance processes of nature, especially the serendipitous way vines and grasses grow into complex configurations. Through these methods, he was able to maintain a direct, tangible connection to nature via natural motifs even as his translucent washes evoke the subtle, shifting play of light in the local landscape.
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