Robert Egert

As long as I can remember, I have been exploring ways of developing images that combine imaginary worlds, science and history. I draw upon a range of sources that include organic growth patterns evidenced in plant and animal life as well as inorganic patterns such as crystal formation. I find inspiration in medical illustration, natural history, arms and armor (for their relationship to the body), mycology and gothic decoration.

Media

My current work is typically executed in monochrome, using pastel chalk on paper. As a drawing instrument it is unforgiving and records every gesture. It does not allow for erasing or changes. In this way, each drawing is a true record of its own creation.

Forms

These drawings are primitive forms suspended in the center of the paper. This is a reference to the tradition of natural history illustration and scientific examination generally. Many feature a single shape whose negative spaces are at least as important as the drawn areas--related to minimalism and early modernism yet infused with a matrix of root systems --organic references that perform a counterpoint to the simplicity of the forms.

Blue

I was inspired to create the blue chalk drawings by a passage from Homer's Iliad describing the Shield of Achilles. The forms that armor take are directly related to the human or equestrian body but the surfaces refer to plant-like growth. The passage from Homer is a phantasmagoric plunge into a complex, animated world that combines mythology, iconography and ornament. At its core it describes the animate potential of inorganic matter and it is particularly interesting because it describes an art object that never existed.

Red

The red drawings examine boundaries between organic and inorganic structures. For example, the intersection of crystal formation and plant ramification, twentieth-century minimalism and the conventions of 19th century naturalists; root-bound plants and the network of blood vessels visible just beneath the skin.

2016, Simon V. Croton finally succeeds in splicing the bovine gene sequence into the stem cell dna that opens the door to commercial production of synthetic stents that are not subject to immune response rejection.

Augenblick

Not everything can be found where you would expect it to be. This is problem of taxonomy as well as a social dilemma. From a taxonometric perspective, the act of categorization cannot be divorced from linguistics and prevalent social norms. Will you find the light bulbs with electrical supplies or housewares? Is Family Guy a stealth method of perverting the ethics of youth or an atavistic play on disenfranchised suburbanites?

Red Chalk

On the Floor

When Bogdan first began his piece he was rigorous about staying within the confines of the exercise. But unfortunately in the dim light of the attic and with the crude tools at hand, the piece grew in size and as it did his creative path took him away from his intended direction. Instead of the formal demonstration that his professor was looking for to demonstrate his mastery of the curricula, he reverted to his oft-repeated theme while obsessively weighing himself on a bathroom scale.