Aaron Morse | Matrix 213: Some Forgotten Place

Aaron Morse’s vision of nature combines nineteenth-century romantic epics about the wild western frontier with contemporary popular sources and a futuristic vision of reality. In Hawkeye #2 (2004), five elongated vertical panels present landscapes, close-ups, and abstract passages to form an action-based narrative sequence. Evocative of color field painting, the work’s historical narrative could easily be missed, allowing it to be read visually as pure abstraction. The Beach (2004) presents both an evolutionary and devolutionary range of life and land. In the ocean, the only element in the painting that is the color it “ought” to be, a parent shark swims surrounded by its young. The sand is brown, the sky maroon, and the haze off the mountains pink. A large sandpiper and crab fight over the remains of a human skull, and a perfect fish specimen lies belly-up. Here Morse presents an apocalyptic vision of nature in a society devoid of conservation policies and environmental protection. America the beautiful?

October 1, 2004