FFWD Weekly
Copyright © 1998 All Rights Reserved.
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| VISUAL ARTS JEFF NACHTIGALL "NAFTAltarpiece" may look political to some, but to the artist, the content of art is something he's trying to distance himself from. "I'd rather be painting in my studio," says Jeff Nachtigall. "(This work) is a gut reaction. It's as much about texture and surface as it is about anything political." Shaped like a traditional medieval three-part winged altarpiece, the painted images are reminiscent of rustic folk art and iconic fetishes. The large center panel represents Canada with a Bambi-like creature in the wilderness. Smaller wing panels on either side depict Julio Jalapeño wearing a Mexican sombrero, and Rodney Rodent in front of an American flag. "I still want to leave a lot of question marks," says Nachtigall. "It says everything itself, and anything I say is a few steps below what it really is." Nachtigall's texture and surface is revealed in the found objects on which he paints. To the artist, a found object from the garbage has a "history, it's own baggage, it's own story to tell. "I was able to jump right in. It wasn't precious, so it freed me up," he says, compared with the purchased, "blank, sterile surfaces (that) represented an investment - and made it difficult for me to express the level of spontaneity and energy that I desired." The "Muddy Water" series is a collage of found wood and tacky wallpaper and old newspaper. Possibly inspired by the blues music he listens to in his studio, "Muddy Water" can also mean a meeting place for interaction, such as a communal watering hole or perhaps a shared studio situation. Varied creatures are brought together and the artist sees himself as an anthropologist who intuitively paints images of pop culture from comic books to TV, using Spiderman, dinosaurs, aliens and the palm trees of LA. Nachtigall believes the intuitive process of creation is important. "(It's) a fusing of conscious and subconscious thought... layering images, my conscious mind would say, 'Okay, this kind of looks like this.'" The artist likens his process to the action painting of Jackson Pollock. "It's about a moment, a record. "A lot of animals seem to come out," he says, and while it may be stereotypical Great Canadian North content, if so, it's tongue-in-cheek. "Images come from me. It sounds like a cop-out, but it really isn't. I try to stand back and not overly intellectualize the images. "Images that are juxtaposed are amazing and completely taken out of context and that's what happens inside my head, and a lot of people's heads," he says. "I call it National Geographic Syndrome. On one page, there's the birth of a star, and on the next page a microscopic animal. I'm really interested in taking things out of context, placing them beside each other, then seeing the story that people tend to create. It's random, like scenes from unmade movies." For Nachtigall, viewer interaction is imperative and each individual is different. "It's there, a narrative to interact with each individual that sees it, and, to me, that's more interesting than what I can bring to it." If we assume the artist mirrors society, Nachtigall comments, "A lot of the stuff comes from being what I believe is a scatterbrained generation - with remote controls and a hundred channels to flip through with zero attention span." He shrugs. "It's the way it is." |
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