Intricately carved landscapes weave through the pages of Guy Laramee's pages, but not in the way that landscapes are typically created in literature. Laramee literally creates landscapes in these tomes to create his sculptures; emulating the way time and erosion carve caves, streams, and valleys into the geography of the earth. Through sculpture and painting Laramee explores the erosion of culture.
"So I carve landscapes out of books and I paint Romantic landscapes. Mountains of disused knowledge return to what they really are: mountains. They erode a bit more and they become hills. Then they flatten and become fields where apparently nothing is happening. Piles of obsolete encyclopedias return to that which does not need to say anything, that which simply IS. Fogs and clouds erase everything we know, everything we think we are."
His work is absolutely beautiful, in the awe inspiring way that a Chinese landscape painting is; his sculptures draw you in to a space of exploration, where you are invited to travel a path and discover the way the landscape gradually changes. I would love to see some of his work in person, but until then here is his website to explore and some photos of my favorites.
