Steven Sangapore
Interview by Kiran Gurung, Colloquium Manager
Photo credit: Gerry Evelyn, Evelyn Images, Waltham MA.
KG: What led you to pursue the path of being an artist?
SS: Visual art is something that I knew I would end up being involved in since about the age of seven or eight. I had a very strong inclination toward art and drawing as a child and instinctively knew that regardless of whatever path I followed through the years, I would eventually end up an artist. It is very much something that seems to have chosen me in life.
The act of creating and sharing paintings plays a huge factor in helping to develop strong inner narratives and personal storytelling. The inclination to make art is my call to action - a means to a virtuous way of being in the world. It is a project that when done right, enriches oneself, a community, and the human project at large.
I have always been deeply interested in the sciences and closely follow both the scientific and art communities and their new (and growing) initiatives to intersect. I am excited that my interests have brought me to a place where I can merge scientific ideas I find compelling with my love of painting and art making.
SS: Visual art is something that I knew I would end up being involved in since about the age of seven or eight. I had a very strong inclination toward art and drawing as a child and instinctively knew that regardless of whatever path I followed through the years, I would eventually end up an artist. It is very much something that seems to have chosen me in life.
The act of creating and sharing paintings plays a huge factor in helping to develop strong inner narratives and personal storytelling. The inclination to make art is my call to action - a means to a virtuous way of being in the world. It is a project that when done right, enriches oneself, a community, and the human project at large.
I have always been deeply interested in the sciences and closely follow both the scientific and art communities and their new (and growing) initiatives to intersect. I am excited that my interests have brought me to a place where I can merge scientific ideas I find compelling with my love of painting and art making.
"Discovery" (2019). 40" x 30" x 2". Oil, ink, and 24L gold leaf on clayboard panel. Image courtesy of the artist.
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"Collapse of the Self #2" (2018). 14" x 11" x 1.5". Oil and ink on wood panel. Image courtesy of the artist.
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KG: On your website you mention your work is a combination of “realism and pure abstraction.” Could you elaborate on your artistic style?
SS: In my current series, I set out to explore two distinctly opposite executions of single subjects. By splitting the panels into two halves vertically down the middle, I represent the subject in a painterly realism style using oil on one side, and employ fragmented line work using ink on the other.
This dichotomy between the two visual executions correlates with the series’s theme. On one half the realist approach illustrates the world we perceive, understand and interact with. On the other half using inks, creative line work representationally illustrates the non-locality (superpositions) of quantum particles in which all of the subjects are comprised. There is no texture, true shape or form - just potential.
SS: In my current series, I set out to explore two distinctly opposite executions of single subjects. By splitting the panels into two halves vertically down the middle, I represent the subject in a painterly realism style using oil on one side, and employ fragmented line work using ink on the other.
This dichotomy between the two visual executions correlates with the series’s theme. On one half the realist approach illustrates the world we perceive, understand and interact with. On the other half using inks, creative line work representationally illustrates the non-locality (superpositions) of quantum particles in which all of the subjects are comprised. There is no texture, true shape or form - just potential.
"Collapse of the Mind" (2018). 8" diameter x .75". Oil and ink on circular canvas. Image courtesy of the artist.
KG: As your art draws from an amalgamation of philosophy and science, how do you eventually combine, balance, or include these two elements?
SS: Metaphor and symbolism have been at the heart of creative communication throughout much of human evolutionary history. Often, when communicating ideas in both science and philosophy, I will use visual archetypes as symbols for scientific concepts and ideas. I am very interested in subjects that currently teeter on the overlapping edges of both science and philosophy. Ideas involving the nature of consciousness and matter, free will, and determinism are some of the deeply mysterious problems that are of great interest to me. Abstract concepts such as these can be very difficult to articulate through visual art. I have found the best way of starting a conversation within a painting is through the use of symbolism and creating relationships between those symbols.
KG: In your piece Collapse: Of the Environment #2, you use superposition as an aesthetic framing mechanism. Can you talk a bit about this as it relates to the theme of the environment?
SS: Modern science, namely quantum theory tells us that, perhaps, consciousness is not necessarily birthed from the universe, but rather is the creator of it. Contemporary science informs us that the universe is made of particles, but particles also behave as waves. Actually, particles always exist in a wave state of probability which are spread out everywhere at all points in space within the universe (a superposition) until a conscious observer interacts with it. It is this interaction that will collapse the wave function of a particle to a single position of locality in space.
My series "SUPERPOSITION" is based on narrow, esoteric themes, yet the concepts involved apply broadly to all people, places and things in the universe. Because there were so many subjects I could reference, I chose those that have significance to me. My favorite genre of art is landscape painting - I chose to create three series installments of landscape or, “environment” pieces that were referenced from photographs I took during a recent trip to Belgium.
SS: Metaphor and symbolism have been at the heart of creative communication throughout much of human evolutionary history. Often, when communicating ideas in both science and philosophy, I will use visual archetypes as symbols for scientific concepts and ideas. I am very interested in subjects that currently teeter on the overlapping edges of both science and philosophy. Ideas involving the nature of consciousness and matter, free will, and determinism are some of the deeply mysterious problems that are of great interest to me. Abstract concepts such as these can be very difficult to articulate through visual art. I have found the best way of starting a conversation within a painting is through the use of symbolism and creating relationships between those symbols.
KG: In your piece Collapse: Of the Environment #2, you use superposition as an aesthetic framing mechanism. Can you talk a bit about this as it relates to the theme of the environment?
SS: Modern science, namely quantum theory tells us that, perhaps, consciousness is not necessarily birthed from the universe, but rather is the creator of it. Contemporary science informs us that the universe is made of particles, but particles also behave as waves. Actually, particles always exist in a wave state of probability which are spread out everywhere at all points in space within the universe (a superposition) until a conscious observer interacts with it. It is this interaction that will collapse the wave function of a particle to a single position of locality in space.
My series "SUPERPOSITION" is based on narrow, esoteric themes, yet the concepts involved apply broadly to all people, places and things in the universe. Because there were so many subjects I could reference, I chose those that have significance to me. My favorite genre of art is landscape painting - I chose to create three series installments of landscape or, “environment” pieces that were referenced from photographs I took during a recent trip to Belgium.
"Collapse: Of the Environment #4" (2019). 12" x 9" x 1.5". Oil and ink on wood panel. Image courtesy of the artist.
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"Collapse: Of the Environment #2" (2018). 16" x 12" x 1.5". Oil and ink on wood panel. Image courtesy of the artist.
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KG: Do you have any upcoming shows or pieces in progress you would like to mention?
SS: I am currently focusing most of my attention on studio time and am working on one of my most important paintings to date. The painting is a figurative self-portrait in the style and execution of my current series. It is important that within this piece, I communicate the figure and details in a way that illustrate the archetypal tragic hero - clearly battling adversity (both from outside and within) while being represented in a way that suggests potential salvation and triumph.
A huge initiative throughout the past year has been to put more of my life story into the work. My approach of combining subjects of interest with personal and emotional hooks has allowed me to create some of my most conceptually dense and emotionally satisfying work.
SS: I am currently focusing most of my attention on studio time and am working on one of my most important paintings to date. The painting is a figurative self-portrait in the style and execution of my current series. It is important that within this piece, I communicate the figure and details in a way that illustrate the archetypal tragic hero - clearly battling adversity (both from outside and within) while being represented in a way that suggests potential salvation and triumph.
A huge initiative throughout the past year has been to put more of my life story into the work. My approach of combining subjects of interest with personal and emotional hooks has allowed me to create some of my most conceptually dense and emotionally satisfying work.
Check out more of Steven's work on his website.
