Rick Copsey - Paintscapes (2012)
"TheĀ PaintscapesĀ series presents photographs of wet paint that seem to circumvent the inherent ātruthā of the camera as the apparent verisimilitude of each image renders problematic what constitutes reality.
As illusions, theĀ PaintscapesĀ works mirror Kantās idea of the sublime in nature as āformless and shapelessā such as the ocean or the sky; as such, theyĀ associate the viscous flows of paint with the amorphousness of the sea.
TheĀ allusion to the Kantian sublime is a Postmodernist attack on Modernismās exaltation of pictorial form as finite; instead, the sublime can be infinite as well as formless. As works that manifest the sublime, theirĀ condition as a hyperreality presents what appear to be representations of various sea scenes as images without referents where reality and illusion are brought into question.ā