"I don't have an impulse to make work that looks like my work. Things don't repeat. I had a period where I had a formula with the landscapes embedded in the plinths, and a run of works working with light that I could predict what they would look like. I was losing my interest, as I want to surprise myself. I am comfortable with those differences. There are always connections. It is a charm bracelet and I stick on different things."
Tania Kovats
I have recently been looking at the work of sculpture artist Tania Kovats. I find her work particularly interesting for the way in which she deals with the natural world in a way which brings her work into contemporary art world rather than remaining on the outside like some artists such as Andy Goldsworthy.
Her work is bold and compelling as her large sculptural forms create the same sense of presence and weight as the rock formations which she studies. She is also able to recreate the same geological processes and formations to create familiar textures and surfaces to that which we experience in the real world, whilst allowing them to be considered from a artistic perspective as she contrasts them with clean white surfaces. She therefore allows a recreation of a piece of the natural world to be viewed and experienced for its innate and natural beauty.
However what I find interesting as a viewer of Kovats's work is the experience of viewing these objects which appear to be organic and made from natural materials but are infact entirely a product of human manipulation and construction. Therefore the power of these rocks which signify the geological forces at work on our earth, such as earthquakes, continental shifts etc, to be at the mercy and control of a human. Therefore there is a distinct contrast created between and initial awe at viewing the object for its natural beauty and a respect for the natural world with a then realisation of the impact we inflict on the natural landscape through human intervention.
Overall, I find Kovats's a interesting artist, and to refer back to the earlier quote, I find her ideologies as a artist admirable to not simply create a personal artist style and stick to it and remain predictable, similarly to her subject matter as the natural world is not universal and definitely not predictable.