3rd place: Thomas Bogacki | sculpture/installation
The captivating worlds and environments that artist Thomas Bogacki creates combine both the natural with unnatural. His installations, often resembling geological formations, are meticulously and ironically created from the remnants of our advanced industrial and digital age. With Thomas Bogacki, an interesting dichotomy is presented: the artist as scientist, the scientist as artist.
Describe your earliest beginnings as an artist.
I would most definitely say that the roots of creativity began when I was a child. I feel strongly that children, in general, are naturally creative, and this is where it all begins. I had been fortunate enough to have parents that took notice of my talents and allowed and encouraged them to grow, and still to this day. I was always a highly inquisitive child relentlessly wanting to know the answer to everything and to understand how things worked. From those times on, I was interested in the process of "making", whether it be painting, coloring, making objects. etc. I got such a sense of satisfaction and bliss after creating something, and it's a feeling that you keep chasing and want to experience over and over again. Accompanying my artistic side was a strong interest in science and geology. I spent endless hours playing with microscope kits and chemistry sets, looking at my cheek cells, and observing/collecting crystals and rocks.
What was a defining moment in your early development as an artist?
I think it was in high school when I realized that the visual arts was something that I wanted to pursue. I owe a great thanks to some very special teachers that helped me to realize that the arts are very important to a great deal of people and that it is very much worth exploring. So I decided that going to art school would be my ideal path, and wanted to work on developing a professional career as an artist. At first it was difficult for me to decide what I wanted to go to school for. At the time, I was torn between becoming a biology/earth science major vs. the visual arts. But the two can harmoniously become intertwined. Discovering my voice as an artist happened during a forty-day cross country road trip where I visited the mysterious southwestern deserts, and many of the national parks. I simply was overwhelmed and saw it as a limitless source of creative inspiration.
Describe your driving force or motivation to create artwork.
Usually going to galleries and seeing other artist's work helps to provide me with the desire to create my own work, especially when you can see that they are really passionate and that it is something that they really care about. There is so much going on out there and so much to be inspired by. More importantly though, I think what drives and motivates artists is usually a very personal and internal phenomena that varies from artist to artist. From childhood, I have always felt this primal urge and its something that just comes naturally, but is always begging to be paid attention to. Ignoring it and not allowing it to manifest can have negative consequences.
How do you grow and further challenge yourself as an artist?
I'm always on the hunt for new and non-traditional materials to work with and that in itself is a fun challenge. It keeps me occupied and then I can experiment with the materials, which is so much fun! The biggest challenge for me, as of now, is trying to strike a balance between making enough money to live, while trying to support and find the time to develop what I need to be an artist. Most importantly though, is while doing the research and experimenting, wonderful, unexpected things tend to happen. That in itself is so fulfilling and leads you in the right directions, sometimes with unexpected results. These are the experiences that allow me to grow and present challenges to me.
What inspires you?
I can probably can go on and on forever. I just have to say that I am inspired by so much in this world. Nature, life, and science are my three main inspirations and it is a never ending resource for ideas and usually generates the basis for many of my works.
What appeals to you about utilizing science and technology in the process of creating artwork?n.
Science and technology are very important tools that allow us to develop and advance as a civilization. As we rapidly advance, our understanding of the world becomes more complex, and our images of nature
become more concerned with interrelations. All of this helps to develop new ways of approaching the creative process vs. the more traditional conventional art making techniques. New materials and new ways of manipulating materials are always on the horizon. I am very interested in exploring and learning about these and eventually learning how to utilize it in my own work. Of course, technology and science have their non-artistic purposes. But as they advance, artists, too, will always be there responding and finding ways to incorporate it their art.ss!
What themes do you explore through your artwork?
I tend to always explore ideas about nature, science, and technology. A great deal of my works tend to deal with visual transformations in the materials I use that mimic natural processes. I like to disguise and alter what is innate to what I am working with so that the viewer has to question what he/she is looking at and creating complex organic forms that would seem unlikely to have come from the original man-made material. Also, a lot of it results from playful experimenting and my end results sometimes are simply by chance.
Many of your sculptures utilize remnants of industrial materials such as refrigeration warehouse vinyl, plexi glass filters, plastic sheeting and silicone carbide grit to create geomorphic natural forms often resembling rock formations, anemonae, coral and water. With your choice of materials in the sculptures you create, are you making a cautionary or even an ironic statement about industrialism versus ecology?
I feel that we, as a civilization, are growing distant from nature, and that's why I want to use industrial and synthetic materials. It is the combination of the natural and unnatural that interests me. It's sort of a mockery, turning these ordinary plastics with their proper utilitarian purposes into these complex organic structures. All to amaze myself and the viewer and remind ourselves of our infinite complexities.
Your textural sculptures and environmental installations appear tactile. Do you encourage viewers to touch your pieces as part of their experience in understanding your artwork and its messages?
In some instances, yes, and some, no. I did, in the past, create an installation where the viewers were allowed to walk in the room and through the sculpture. It involved tons of sheet vinyl hung sheet by sheet from the ceiling in clusters. As the clusters grew in size a blue tint began to become visible. I was able to control the shape of the bottom by varying the length of each piece, and, in the end, it looked like you were viewing an ethereal submerged iceberg underneath the water. I was very happy with their responses and they did very much enjoy being able to touch and interact with an installation in such a way. I am interested in creating more participant-like installations in the future.
You cite geological materials viewed from an electron microscope as a source of creative inspiration in your sculptures. Do you recreate a microscopic world/s as life-size environments in your sculpture-rich installations?
When I first started to use the electron microscope, I immediately became very excited and inspired because I had never been able to see something in that kind of way. It really was where the inspiration for my body of work came from. So, I used it as a tool to gain an understanding of the underlying structures of certain geological materials. I then used the visual information to create the beginnings of possible life-size other-worldly environments.
You also create functional objects (vessels and boxes) made from natural materials such as wood, clay and copper. Do you find it more of a challenge to work with man-made, synthetic materials than natural materials? Which do you prefer to work with?
I think I prefer to work with a little of both in some instances. Those were just some other experiments in playing with form and being able to push even natural materials to their limits. I am also especially interested in combining the two, for example wood and plastic, once again revisiting the idea of the natural vs. unnatural and seeing how the two interact visually with each other.
What would you want a viewer to learn or take away from after experiencing your artwork?
I basically want to share my discoveries and fascinations and present them to the world for others to enjoy and to let everyone see the possibilities of alternate uses for non- traditional materials, and to think about the world and all it's complexity and beauty.
What new artwork/s are you currently working on?
I'm actually considering attending graduate school. As far as new work, I hope to continue elaborating on what I have already created. I'm very interested in possibly collaborating with other artists on large scale public works.
What would you order from a Japanese restaurant menu?
1 jet-cold cucumber sake, miso, hiya yakko, and a salmon teriyaki box.
Thomas Bogacki is an artist based in Croton on Hudson, NY. To learn more about him, please visit : http://www.unitedcreators.com/ThomasBogacki
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