Jake Ludemann

Salix I

jludemann — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 17:50:41 +0000

New Work: Fiber Studies

jludemann — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 17:35:48 +0000

Images are from Fall/Winter 2010, the material is hand harvested willow and basswood bark fiber, and industrial felt. The photos are documentation of a number of material studies that I was experimenting in anticipation of larger scale work with the bark material.

Click to view slideshow.

Drawings Ex Machina

jludemann — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 13:59:03 +0000

These are the end result of the drawing machines mentioned in the post below. The differing line quality was produced by the three different machines. Composition was part random and part controlled.

Drawing Ex Machina

jludemann — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 13:43:37 +0000

In preparation for my next series of drawings, I built a number of drawing machines. My goal with these machines was to develop a controllable random system for producing marks on a page. These machines are controllable in both the intensity of the line made, and the amount and speed of movement.

Light Drawing

jludemann — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 13:33:32 +0000

Inspired by the expressive movement that I had found at the culmination of my drawing workshop, I began to think about capturing that sort of movement through the action of light. These pieces are inspired by the work of Laddie John Dill and Olafur Eliasson, and the line quality of Abstract Expressionism.

Expressive Figure

jludemann — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 13:02:22 +0000

This piece came out of a ten day drawing workshop. Toward the end of the workshop, I switched gears from attempting to replicate the figure in favor of abstraction of the figure. This image attempts to represent the potential movement and action of the body through expressive line.

Earth Stack

jludemann — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 21:14:23 +0000

This piece arose last year out of an intensive study of Darwinian theory. At the culmination of this study, I began to re-examine man’s relationship with the spaces that he is surrounded by. In my work, I began to consider the small sections of rather unloved green space that are surrounded by roads, highways, and pavement. I consider this piece to be a “Core Sample” of unloved earth, biological competition at work.

None of the plants present in the piece were intentionally planted or cultivated, but only grew according to the theory that any specific niche will eventually become filled with a specific lifeform. The shipping pallet takes the place of both a pedestal and a means of movement, symbolic of the universality of this piece of earth.

Tensegrity Sphere

jludemann — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 20:52:50 +0000

So, while I’m getting my camera up and running to bring you current pictures of current work as it happens, I’ll go ahead and post another “Best of” piece from last year. This piece is the culmination of a years worth of study on Buckminster Fuller’s principles of synergetic/energetic systems and tensegrity structures.

The suspended piece is constructed from thirty sections of galvanized tubing, held together with nylon cord. Slightly under six-foot tall, the piece is very resilient, and takes on a springiness akin to that of a rubber ball.

Streamside Performance

jludemann — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 15:00:08 +0000

For this piece, “An Attempt to Tip the Scales”, I set up an outdoor gallery space at a secluded urban stream, and held a gallery opening for the fish that inhabit the space. The featured painting served as an opportunity to discuss the art world with an entirely different audience, namely, fish.

Wine and Cheese with the Fish

Through the duration of the piece, the emphasis of the dialogue began to shift from an inter-species dialogue on the nature of art to a platform for venting current frustration with the art world.

The discussion with the opening attendees heats up.