November 2020

Cosmology

Nicholas Warndorf

Opening Reception · Friday, October 2
Virtual – 6p
https://bit.ly/virtualcosmology

IRL – 7-10p
Register on Eventbrite:
https://bit.ly/934cosmology

Virtual Artist Talk & Close of Show
Saturday, November 14, 1p on Facebook
Gallery Open Hours 12-3p

Artist Statement

Cosmologies are stories we tell about our origins. They might focus on, or blend, aspects of science, philosophy, theology, myth, and history. They are told through texts, oral traditions, scientific theories, artworks, and other artifacts. I’d like to consider the events a cosmology describes as an ongoing process, something still unfolding, rather than sealed off from the present, residing firmly in the past.

In just over 100 years plastic has been found in the depths of the ocean, the food chain, floating through space, and drifting in the air; it has become an environmental and geological force. Where will it be found in another hundred years and beyond? What are, and will be, the ramifications and traces left behind? One clue might be on the beaches of Hawaii in the unique substance of plastiglomerate, a melding of natural materials such as sand and stone along with synthetic materials like plastic. Taking this as inspiration I am exploring plastic as an artifact, a product of human creation, and the ways it has integrated in the non-human world.

My interest here is not so much plastic as a material, I know this may seem misleading, but rather the scale of what it has become and continues to be. Its planetary reach and continual expansion beyond our grasp and human-centered scales of reference. This is not limited to the physical spread, but also a temporal advance into the centuries ahead.

Through camera-less photography and sculpture I am imagining the traces and marks left behind by this force shaping the environment and cosmology of the future.

Artist Bio

Nicholas Warndorf is a visual artist living and working in Columbus, OH. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally with organizations such as SciArt Center of New York (NY, NY), Cambridge Stem Cell Institute (Cambridge, U.K.), ROYGBIV Gallery (Columbus, OH), Cultural Arts Center (Columbus, OH), Collar Works (Troy, NY), and Recession Art (Brooklyn, NY). He is an Adjunct Professor at Wittenberg University, Resident Artist at The Goodwill Art Studio and Gallery, and Fellow at the Columbus Printed Arts Center for the fall of 2020. Nicholas studied studio art and philosophy at Otterbein University and later received a Master of Fine Arts from Stony Brook University in 2014. His work is influenced by his philosophical interests.