"The task of the artist is to remind people of the relationship they have forgotten. When I draw a tree that looks like a tired mother or a mourning man, I am trying to make the passerby stop and realize that there is a shared spirit between us and the woods. If we can learn to see ourselves in the trees, it becomes much harder to destroy them without thought."
-Art Young
nicholas x bent takes the viewer on a visual exploration of dreamscapes from his youth with this incredible exhibition. The photographs depict a place of shelter both tangible and imagined, a psychological terrain shaped by memory and vulnerability. His work portrays the forest’s trees as sanctuary rather than the conventional idea of ominousness. Presented as salt prints, bent engages with the early history of photographic processes giving the images a tactile and tonal delicacy.
His swirling images invoke a sense of shelter and shield as they move between remembered places and imagined dreams and the ties that bind.
A reminder that the fragile environments that we inherit (real or imagined) are worthy of protection and conservation.
-Curators, The Cardinal Gallery
“what lies in the forbidden sanctuary of your thoughts…where do you go?
the forests are alive with memories - the history of place…it sleeps and dreams…it tells stories.
I sought refuge as a child in the forests about my home and family camp. places where imagination intermingled with the ghosts of stories found in legend and fantasy. I romped, danced, climbed and slept at their feet. as night fell they came alive in mind as shadows moved across the walls and ceiling of my room…I would leave with them to find peace…happiness.
the forests trees have long been used to describe the fear that is found in the unknowing…for myself, it is a place of belonging.”
-nicholas x bent
