“Nature Morte” by Christopher Volpe
Christopher Volpe writes about the inspirations behind his work.
‘Plunging Rose,’ Christopher Volpe
“The paintings in my “Nature Morte” series are created with oil paint and liquid coal tar, a fossil fuels byproduct. They picture natural elements in states of transition and suspended animation. Nature morte is the French term for the still life genre, but I also chose it for this series because of its literal translation in English to ‘dead nature.’
To me this phrase resonates with the tar I’m using. Coal and oil are literally ‘dead nature’ - the mineralized remains of prehistoric animals and plants which died millions of years ago. For me, these paintings are like brief, lyrical tone-poems about life and death. Tar is the ultimate earthly matter - gunky, thick, toxic - always trying to pull us down into dissolution. To me, it is the perfect substance for the ultimate aim of painting, which is to use the material to make visible the immaterial.
Beauty does that - the beauty I’m exploring within these paintings is one that acknowledges the shadow-side of life yet insists on a lyrical engagement.
There is a secondary social / political context in the work - it’s secondary to the feelings I am trying to evoke, but it’s there nonetheless. Fossil fuels continue to drive the capitalist “extraction economy” that has utterly transformed the geo-political world in which we live - and which now threatens the very existence of humanity as a result of the alteration of the planet’s chemistry and ongoing global climate collapse.
I didn't want to try to shock the viewer with a loud PAY ATTENTION TO CLIMATE CHANGE political message. Art is often seen as having the role of “raising awareness” about social and ecological issues, but there are lots of ways to raise awareness not related to art, and there are other ways that art is uniquely suited to communicate with “hearts and minds” beyond “calling attention to.” I think a “serious beauty” that doesn’t sugarcoat reality can beguile us into looking at things that we otherwise might not want to see. I want my art to express how it feels to be alive in our moment of time.”
-Christopher Volpe