Glenn Church

I am influenced in my work by the historical dichotomy of the engine of nature as a force of beauty and also a force of destruction. Namely the feelings of a lack of control in the overwhelming mechanisms of nature, but equally the desire to disappear within its borders; due to the equally overwhelming over reaching technology and breakdown of real narratives, as they exist in this moment of time. It is from this dichotomy that I produce works of philosophical, spiritual, social historical and psychological reactions to the 'personal' engagement with the world; both the 'seen' and the 'unseen' aspects of it. With this in mind I am equally influenced by the art produced during the 18th and 19th centuries, when these contrasting ideas of nature and destruction where at their height; the ideas of the sublime as opposed to those of manifest destiny, and the appropriation of nature for progress. The apocalyptic themes produced during this time are once again prevalent in our own time, and our near future; namely themes of the death of the enlightenment, and the rise of nihilism.