Quarry 2: Illinois Forest, by Fred Camper

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Original images for Quarry 2: Illinois Forest 1, Quarry 2: Illinois Forest 2, Quarry 2: Illinois Forest 3, and Quarry 2: Illinois Forest 4.

This group of Quarry works is based on photographs I took in March, 2005, near Carbondale, Illinois. To construct each of the Grids, a single image is divided into between 4 and 169 parts, and these parts are then rearranged using random processes.

My use of randomness here is different than in much other art. It is my hope that because of the choice of images and the ways the parts are rearranged and presented, each work creates a kind of opening-out effect, suggesting to the viewer that seeing, and the seeing of a single image, offer a nearly infinite diversity of possibilities. More can be found on the Quarries main page and in my Artist's Statement.

For one group, the Quarries, Figmented, I divided the original image into grids between four by four and thirteen by thirteen, and then puts each cell in the grid through a treatment related to that used in Figments works, creating 35 lower resolution versions of each of the 36 cells, and then using random numbers to decide which of those along with the original cell to use. Each work has nine differently-modified versions of the original image. The Remades are constructed by rearranging the cells of the original image into new patterns in the smaller sheet; in the larger sheet, the rearranged image is repeated nien times in the manner of the Figmented works. Be sure to click on the larger version and move around in your browser to compare different treatments of the same image.

I have been surprised at how appropriate these rearranged grid treatments seem, if not to the forest itself, then to a human's encounter with a forest. Certainly the organic variety of the forest contrasts with the rectilinear frames. At the same time, the verticality of trees is emphasized, but also, the way in which different parts of a forest echo each other is made clearer, and one's perception of nature's textures is, I hope, heightened. So far I have made works in this group based on two different images, but eventually I'm planning to make works based on ten or more images of the same locale. Also, in addition to these "Grids," other types of works are in progress using the same image fragments.

The works now titled Remade were titled Figmented-G before November 23, 2010. Quarry 2: Illinois Forest 1, Remade 10.1 was Quarry 2: Illinois Forest 1, Figmented-G 10.1; Quarry 2: Illinois Forest 4, Remade 8.1 was Quarry 2: Illinois Forest 4, Figmented-G 8.1.

All Quarries Fred Camper art Complete Fred Camper art