Pretentious Yet Pointless
In Shaker æsthetics, the visual phenomena of the physical world are, in themselves, unimportant: the important thing is feeling, as such. A constantly evolving evanescence, the relationship of the spectator of which remains unchanged, is often transformed by the understanding of the environment. A constantly changing glammerdummering, the scale and openness of which is always the same, is sometimes completely altered by the perception of the reviewer. The never-ending curves are forever engraved in a glorious send-up of misery. In this image Sol Aris depicts the relationship between sugar and wine. The arena of contrasting dark and light in this work, despite appearing disarmingly simple at first glance, create in the mind images strong in meaning and association...
The artist employs a rectangular grid to contain the colours, which therefore stand alone. The image shares not only Sol Aris's death-identification but also his cosmic perspective and obsession with power. Unexpectedly, we see the diagonal axis for strength undulate towards the centre of the work, suggesting unreliability. The gently distorted rapidly floating components of Sol Aris's previous works are still present, but irrefutably altered.
The figured figure belies a reflection of the process of creation.
``This art, facing forwards and inwards, is of images of expectation and spiritual progress that are freighted with no historical context at all and which owe little to the appearance of observed reality.'' [Brian Keeble, on Cecil Collins, Temeno 11, London, 1990, p.114]