Lee Patrick [Johnson]

Since the installed of my piece in the Sol Koffler Gallery I was forced to cease the evolution of the piece as a physical entity.  In order to continue to let the piece evolve I began to study the data that I collected from the piece (the film, the photographs, the evolution to the state it is currently in) as well as researched the philosophy, physicality and theory that arose from the piece’s existence.  I am interested in the quantification of the artistic practice from a materialist (scientific) approach.  My patterns of thought began by studying the Context, Science, Art, and Reaction of the my artwork.   Much of the context and reaction of my work was formed by the “relational aesthetics” (Bourriaud) quality of my work as a means of instigating dialogue, interaction and thought into the realm of ‘Social art’ (’Public art’).  Social art took me into studying Marxist theory and the Tao Te Ching by Lao-Tzu.   Simultaneously I was approaching means by which I could scientifically quantify the effects of art upon society or the viewer (Psychological studies, sociological studies, reactionary measurements of physiologic state — such as vital signs, and an array of other realms).  I began to perceive arts tendency to drift into the Idealistic realm of philosophy where it’s evolution becomes inhibited by the idea that there is something “otherworldly” about it.   Art should not be so easily persuaded into such a simplistic rational for it’s existence.  So here I am, attempting to bring together the critical social, scientific, and philosophical aspects of art into a philosophy of working and thinking.

Art like philosophy doesn’t have an answer.  Answers can be deducted through introspection but never proven.