Ruben Romero Founder of Transmaterialism Artist Statement
Space, light, sound, digital, and time are often considered immaterial because they are unseen and we have limited knowledge about how to manipulate them. Science has come to understand how all of these things can be controlled. New technologies have allowed us to mold some of these intangible materials the way a sculptor would manipulate clay.
As we better understand and are able to manipulate intangibles, the more we can understand that they are material objects. Potentially, art can rely less on physical material to portray the intangible. Transient materials (light, time, space, digital, sound etc.) can be powerful when used by an artist to describe the invisible, intangible, unknowable and inapprehensible. The untouchable materials can best describe ethereal qualities of the spiritual and the undiscovered. My work investigates the physicality of the immaterial.
Studies of vacuums have revealed that the void of space is never empty. Just as ’empty’ space on the planet is filled with gasses, outer space is filled with electromagnetic waves. Like glass, outer space is a vessel for light. I use glass because its transparency represents a manifestation of light and space. Glass represents the physicality of the immaterial. I employ glass in a way that de-emphasizes the technical aspect of the craft while still utilizing it. My long processes should be invisible to the viewer and seemingly simple. Just as the immaterial is invisible and seems simple, art should appear simple in execution.
My work employs intangilbe materials along with my signature use of handmade glass to create installations that discusses the material qualities of space, light, digital, sound, and time. I do create physical objects but only as references to the intangible. My work is more experiential than object oriented. Experiences can change our perspectives of the world. Through my work, I am searching for greater understanding of how ideas about the universe change our perspective of it.
Understanding the corporeal qualities of the incorporeal can be likened to knowing and entering the realm of the universe at creation where the manipulation of time, light, digital, space, etc. is possible.