Pilot Gamer
Gerald Habarth
Gerald Habarth’s work explores the metaphorical representation of that point where our world, the spiritual world and our own psychologies come into contact. This intersection, this inner “space,” however absolute, lofty or ideal, our experience of what we call the metaphysical, and the forms and words we choose to represent it, are always inextricably bound to the limitations of our conceptions and to the influence of our histories, religions and cultures. It is nonetheless a powerful and inspiring experience. Amid the constant flux that characterizes contemporary experience and human consciousness generally, with all its attendant desires and distractions, our experience of the transcendent becomes wrought with uncertainty, incongruity, instability and contradiction: an uncomfortable mixing of body and spirit, ego and inspiration, doubt and conviction, fear and faith.
The artist seeks to reflect both the awe the awkwardness of this metaphysical yet worldly mixture. Space and form are primary concerns. Multiple spaces, both pictorial and actual, collide, crossover or literally spill into one another. Perspectives are skewed, and forms are distorted. The images are simplified representations of the familiar and the ordinary – trees, tools, books, utensils – they personify the forces that govern our psyches. Far from perfect they are ponderous, lopsided, and sometimes even crude. Often repeating from one work to the next, they have become a vague sort of iconography: visual tropes in an ongoing and elemental narrative.
