Jean-Pierre Hébert: Metagon 128

Artist(s):

Jean-Pierre Hébert

Title:

Metagon 128

Exhibition:

SIGGRAPH 2003: CG03: Computer Graphics 2003

Creation Year:

2003

Size:

20 in x 16 in

Artist Statement:

I have always admired calligraphy, sketches, drawings, etchings, for these works show so clearly not only the artist’s hand, but also the eye, the mind guiding it. I have always loved drawings and loved to draw. Also, for 20 years my personal endeavor has been to create a new kind of drawing, where my mind or my eyes or my hand would no longer be a limit. Drawings that would not be constrained by fatigue, cramps, inaccuracies, distraction, or the limits of time. Drawings where new levels of imagination, patience, surprise, and desire would become possible.

To draw, some artists use their whole bodies, some their shoulders, their elbows, or their wrists. Some use five fingers, or one, or only their finger tips. I use only my brain to draw. To conceive and produce these drawings, I have studied the micro gestures that drawings are made of, and I have created and tamed tracing devices to handle them for me. As Victor Vasarely or Sol Lewitt instructed their helpers, I pair the creative concept behind each piece with the necessary instructions for the helpers I employ to produce it.

My helpers are tools and devices, not people. My helping devices are balls, magnets, pendulums, plotters, smart motors, spinners, syringes, teflon tubes, tops, water, and wires combined and driven by natural forces or software. I write the software myself, using many of the paradigms found in nature for creation of shapes. This is how my abstractions often inherit their organic character. My material is the line, the thread, the filament my tools can trace. My favorite medium is pen and ink or graphite on paper. Sometimes, I may trace these lines into sand, or wood, or etching plates; or I may align blobs, drips, drops, or use a brush. Often, I add hand marks of some sort.

My work abstracts inherent structures that underly nature at all scales to explore space and time. Its purpose is to stimulate the mind, elevate the spirit, quiet energies, and encourage meditation.