Intimacy and distance - man and nature.

Bjørn Ransve

Brown-red ape.  1995. 

Oil on board, 122 x 99 cm

How would you measure the distance between an ape to a human? What to measure, what metrics? How close are we to our primal ancestors? Is that a relevant question to the theme at present? Resemblance or distance could be depending on the situation. This cage is different. What if we as a naked individual are left, alone, under the eye of the observer, naked, stripped down to our basic existence? All integrity removed, our gaze introvert, yet seeking something outside. Yes, I have seen the gaze in the depicted primal before, it was on the face of a tormented human. What we expect to fill out the discomfort of pure existence is gone. Context is the color of feelings, not that of the rational. The core of our own identity, so stripped of everything that helps us constitutes it.  The jungle gone, left are structures vanishing in rough strokes of vibrant colors, impressions beyond that of the rational. A productive state of shard feeling – the fragile existence we cling to as primates in various states of evolution. This state of pure being establish a bridge over which we are invited to an intimate, yet rationally distanced encounter with – “our selves”.

And by stepping back the monochrome, dissolving unfinished expression leaves the primate naked and fragile to our looks. Intimate, even at a distance.  

For a more extensive discussions on the theme"The body: the meat and the spirit: becoming animal" based on pictures by Francisc Backon, please visit:

http://www.alexalienart.com/bacon%20bled%20bare.htm