January 2012

A Wayfaring Nature

Human society spends a lot of time and energy combating its natural origins. When an aspect of humanity bears too many markers of a natural process, we either privatize it or ritualize it. Over time, those aspects are elaborated upon in the form of clothes, ceremonies, architectural motifs, laws, and other modalities. Those privatized and ritualized aspects are the grounds for culture’s existence. It is this membrane between nature and culture that the artist is interested in exploring. It is a virtually indefinable territory, because it permeates every corner of our lives. The modes of presenting Horstman’s findings are diverse, reflecting the ubiquity of the subject. The artist employs drawing, photography, installation, objects, sound, and video. The photographs are hung as a frieze around the gallery depicting a natural pond as it transitions through the seasons. They are significantly placed in a position of cultural reverence and presented in a very linear and rational way. So is this nature or is it culture?

Horstman’s work examines the underlying principals of how human culture is constructed and how it relates to the natural systems in place. He sees ecology as the system through which an organism interacts with its environment. In that sense, this work is entirely ecological.

Horstman received his BFA from Kenyon College and his MFA from Maryland Institute College of Art. He has exhibited nationwide, as well as in Paris, France.

You can view more of his work at www.fritzhorstman.com.