Friday, March 27, 2009

Ecstatic Reality

Monday through Friday on my way to the bus stop in the early morning I pass the Guerrero Street art space called 18 Reasons. Currently on display in the pre-dawn San Francisco darkness we find The Giving Hand of Altered Destinies, conceptual work by Bert Bergen, as described by the gallery thus:

Bert Bergen is a multi-disciplinary artist focused on presenting an ecstatic reality through the use of forms and images of humanity and nature. This reality is a combination of scientific, personal, historic and mystical information that is blurred and amalgamated to provide a conceptual framework.

"The Giving Hands of Altered Destinies" is the realization of the crystal form as a conduit to transport the human experience to a place outside of our physical reality. Bergen employs mysticism and scientific and personal information surrounding crystals to inform his sewn paintings and enameled wood cutouts. He has displayed these in an installation of endlessly repeating crystal lattice screen prints. A collaborative performance based on shamanic disciplines will be given to tune the frequencies of those who are willing.



But maybe the mystical Mr. Bergen's choice of adhesives conveys a message of its own.