Charles Jarboe - Artist Statement

Life is full of uncertainty, mystery, wonder, and doubt. My work exists as a site for questioning the nature of knowledge, understanding, and our ability as human beings to reach out and grasp that which is outside our bodies in a search for objective truth. It operates in a realm that comes before associations and “knowing”; a realm of pure feeling that in turn has implications for the world of ideas that exists beyond.

At the heart of my research is the exploration of the relationship between light, color, and perception. I use glass as a medium to embody and reconfigure the ephemeral character of light. My work foregrounds the subtleties of materiality, texture, and geometry, and flattens the relationship between content and form. My work makes available phenomena that seem to exist somewhere between the objective world and subjective experience. I highlight the ways in which the existence of something seemingly concrete is in fact tenuous, elusive, and indefinite. That which is subtle and ambiguous makes us want to know more, to reach forth, shift perspective, move in closer, spend more time.

Through theater production, architectural design, and scientific research, I have spent years exploring the ways in which light impacts human perception, emotion, and physiology. Centralized within my artmaking are the interactions between body, mind, and world.

Glass has the exceptional ability to make light solid and reveal the many ways that light is manifested within our environment. Variations of surface texture, finish, material density, geometric form, thickness, and edge profile, all have profound effect on the ways in which light interacts with the glass object. I draw on these properties of glass to unveil the fleeting yet ever-present character of light.

The objects and environments I create function as opportunities for the viewer to connect with and contemplate the subtleties of vision. Each piece acts as a window into our own inner worlds. Through processes of self-reflection, we can become aware of the mechanisms of our own senses, as well as their inherent limitations, and thus further grasp the depth and complexities of reality. Whether it is a mirrored black glass object or geometrical construction made from paper, the form first presents itself one way, but slowly unfolds into something more complex through interaction across time.

It is in the spirit of the quest for knowledge, not just of the world outside us, but also of the nature of consciousness and perception, that I develop sculptural forms and installations that present an opportunity for the viewer to be in a place of uncertainty and wonder. It is in this place that I hope the viewer of my work will want to further explore the knot of relations between themselves, their perceptual processes, and the world of complexity outside.