The Art of Solomon Behnke

Solomon Behnke

Born: 1983, Kaukauna, WI
Is an artist and musician currently living and working in Nashville, TN.

Schooling

BFA (2007) Memphis College of Art
Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design

Music

Contact

Artist Statement

Much of my current work deals with the concepts of time and timelessness, or rather, the ideas of permanence and impermanence. I attempt through my work to point to humankind's seemingly instinctual need to alter or to modify the things surrounding us, not only toward survival, but more importantly, in order to address the latent epistemological and ontological concerns of our being, especially dealing with the inevitability of one's own finitude. This questions the idea that the impact of an image or creation, is only important in so long as it relays the lasting verbal components it set out to convey. Instead, my work explores a notion that all of humankind's creations exist in some way as attempted appearances of the noumenal, or rather, that to any intended creation (or even vestigial markations) can be attributed a latent epistemological quest for understanding; namely, a conscious and unconscious pursuance for the answers of our being Ñ especially our being of ephemeral and transitory existence.

Many of the forms I create derive from various stone/natural formations and are then altered in ways reminiscent of the human figure and placed in a landscape. My attempt by this is to combine the impermanent qualities of life with the seemingly more permanent qualities of things such as stone in effort of bridging the gap between the two. By the merging of this dichotomy, I hope to create a very simple visual discourse within the form itself which causes the viewer to question its existence (how, or what it is) which in turn serves as an example of how we ourselves question our own existence.