Nicholas Horman - 1000 Layers

Nicholas Horman

Nicholas is a visual artist based out of Long Island City, New York. Nicholas's philosophy of art is as follows: Art is experimentation. Experimentation is a kind of attitude that requires a humbling to the material forces of the cosmos, forces that are perceptible, imperceptible, and what has been traditionally denoted as part of the human world. Even our consciousness with its affects, sentiments and concepts behave as other kinds of material forces in the world. Consider our dreams in comparison to weather phenomenon. We may trace out memories from our day as catalysts to the formation of the dream, however the dream's unfolding stems from a confluence of forces, some of which are imperceptible if not simply non-human. We find during our dreaming states a dynamic system pulsating in and with our awareness, just as we find charged weather on earth. Art, then, equipped with a humble, open attitude, much like the membranes of our nervous-system, is guided by not only the force of our concepts but also the autonomous forces with which it is mixed. In this sense, art is a process of experimentation where new forces and intensities arise during temporary clustering. This is evident in Nicholas’s work, for example “1000 Layers”, where the production of sculptural pieces from several layers of latex paint arises out of accidents and miscarriages of concepts, and visions. The sensation and interaction with the dried paint is what Nick’s concepts are attempting to catch up with. We find a metaphoric force in the peeling of layers as it nests a concept of depth and complexity, but in so much as it is late, the sensation of the artwork remains a wild mixture. Moreover, our perception, and all the meaning this entails, sits beside, and mixed with, the assemblage of material forces- in the case of "1000 Layers", paint, color, wood, concepts, etc. In sum, Nicholas aims to make mixtures now and ask questions later.