Natural Forces
Jerry Svoboda
While working on this collection, I’ve dreamed of being first-born into the world, the proto-human, Adam. Daydreaming is my way of responding to grief and longing for all that we have lost, the wildness we have trampled, and the extinctions and genocides we have perpetrated.
I invite viewers to escape with me into a world without history and enter a timescale that is geologic in scope. I encourage viewers to diminish themselves and embrace the insignificance of humankind while facing the merciless cycle of creation and destruction.
I’ve created irrational landscapes, with shifting viewpoints and unknown scales. Each is a stage upon which primordial forms perform and digress. I’ve imposed upon these landscapes unstoppable natural forces that are continuously churning, flourishing and collapsing. I’ve invited incomprehensible drama to unfold. For me, this world is tangible and senseless, like a nightmare about a disaster movie.
I’ve reworked these drawings many times, pushing and lifting the charcoal, sometimes exhausting the paper in the process. The first couple of drawings began with direct observation, en plein aire, and soon expanded beyond what I’d seen. The remaining drawings were born from memories of particular places and experiences.