These images are an affirmation of the authenticity and timelessness of abstraction. long before man reinvented it in modern
art.
Often we discern, on all these different scales. a repetitive order
of forms and structures. The anticlines. synclines. faults and
overthrusts that are seen in mountain ranges are repeated in
microfolds and tiny fractures in rock samples the size of a fist,
and smaller. The five and six-sided pillars of basalt and trachyte.
as seen in quarries or in the field, bear a deceptive similarity to
the tiny, columnar crystals of tourmaline and other minerals.
These repetitive structures and dynamic forms reflect the fascinating concept of fractal ism, the theorem conceived and
worked out by the mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot. and ever
so attractively presented in his book The Fractal Geometry of
Nature (1983). He demonstrates that not only rhythms but also
many forms and other phenomena in nature or technology can
be broken up in fragments (fractals) of similar form or can
repeat themselves on many scales and in totally different materials or processes.
Numerous are the descriptions, notably in older but also in
recent writing. of the mysterious and evocative images rendered
in stone, in eroded rock as well as on freshly broken or polished
surfaces. And such images were often not regarded as purely
accidental, or as just a whim of nature.There had to be more to
it, something spiritual and yet beyond human understanding.
An outstandingly passionate view of stones in this respect was
that expounded by the French anthropologist and writer Roger
Caillois (1913-1978). He writes about the inimitable forms and
images in stone in several essays that form a culmination of mystical lyricism in his diverse literary work. In the introduction to
I'Ecriture des Pierres (1970) he writes of stones: 'that are
sought after and revered not for their rarity or expensiveness,
but rather for some peculiarity in form. a pattern or color that
is as bizarre as it is consequential. Nearly always the fascination
is aroused by an unexpected resemblance. which is improbable
and yet so natural. Stones anyway have something grave, something unyielding and extreme, like being imperishable or already
having perished long ago'.
It is evident that stones can be looked at from different perspectives. and the same is true for the pictures in this book.
There is the impressionist viewpoint. that of science and theme.
And the other perspective is that of expressionism. of form and
beauty. I am a geologist by education and without that background it would not have been possible to render this theme in
all its depth and richness. But it is the expressionist perspective.
that of the 'art' in minerals and rocks, that primarily inspired me
to make these exposures.
Art? Whose art... ?Our habitual concept of art is one of objects
created by our fellow men and rendered with a pen, a brush, a
chisel or a camera. But surely. some- where far outside our field
of view, an anonymous artist of peerless supremacy has been at
work, a master of unlimited means and boundless inspiration.
who created things of beauty in the space and matter around us
long before we existed, long before we came with our human
concept of art.
Dirk J.Wiersma
art.
Often we discern, on all these different scales. a repetitive order
of forms and structures. The anticlines. synclines. faults and
overthrusts that are seen in mountain ranges are repeated in
microfolds and tiny fractures in rock samples the size of a fist,
and smaller. The five and six-sided pillars of basalt and trachyte.
as seen in quarries or in the field, bear a deceptive similarity to
the tiny, columnar crystals of tourmaline and other minerals.
These repetitive structures and dynamic forms reflect the fascinating concept of fractal ism, the theorem conceived and
worked out by the mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot. and ever
so attractively presented in his book The Fractal Geometry of
Nature (1983). He demonstrates that not only rhythms but also
many forms and other phenomena in nature or technology can
be broken up in fragments (fractals) of similar form or can
repeat themselves on many scales and in totally different materials or processes.
Numerous are the descriptions, notably in older but also in
recent writing. of the mysterious and evocative images rendered
in stone, in eroded rock as well as on freshly broken or polished
surfaces. And such images were often not regarded as purely
accidental, or as just a whim of nature.There had to be more to
it, something spiritual and yet beyond human understanding.
An outstandingly passionate view of stones in this respect was
that expounded by the French anthropologist and writer Roger
Caillois (1913-1978). He writes about the inimitable forms and
images in stone in several essays that form a culmination of mystical lyricism in his diverse literary work. In the introduction to
I'Ecriture des Pierres (1970) he writes of stones: 'that are
sought after and revered not for their rarity or expensiveness,
but rather for some peculiarity in form. a pattern or color that
is as bizarre as it is consequential. Nearly always the fascination
is aroused by an unexpected resemblance. which is improbable
and yet so natural. Stones anyway have something grave, something unyielding and extreme, like being imperishable or already
having perished long ago'.
It is evident that stones can be looked at from different perspectives. and the same is true for the pictures in this book.
There is the impressionist viewpoint. that of science and theme.
And the other perspective is that of expressionism. of form and
beauty. I am a geologist by education and without that background it would not have been possible to render this theme in
all its depth and richness. But it is the expressionist perspective.
that of the 'art' in minerals and rocks, that primarily inspired me
to make these exposures.
Art? Whose art... ?Our habitual concept of art is one of objects
created by our fellow men and rendered with a pen, a brush, a
chisel or a camera. But surely. some- where far outside our field
of view, an anonymous artist of peerless supremacy has been at
work, a master of unlimited means and boundless inspiration.
who created things of beauty in the space and matter around us
long before we existed, long before we came with our human
concept of art.
Dirk J.Wiersma