Hierbas 3

About Jose Ramon Ais

Artificial Paradises The scent wafting off of Jose Ramon Ais’ airy field-scape series Hierbas is artificial and virtual – and yet it draws you into an all too pristine nature. The photographs depict all forms of herbs from forest and field beneath a sensationally created skyscape, for which the Bilbao-based photographer, artist, and filmmaker uses tricky technical aids to achieve dramatic

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Artificial Paradises

The scent wafting off of Jose Ramon Ais’ airy field-scape series Hierbas is artificial and virtual – and yet it draws you into an all too pristine nature. The photographs depict all forms of herbs from forest and field beneath a sensationally created skyscape, for which the Bilbao-based photographer, artist, and filmmaker uses tricky technical aids to achieve dramatic presentation. The plants, which are so carefully arranged, are set under an artificial sky through the process of chroma keying. Thus the grassy ensemble has the effect of having been brought to the stage by a garden director. The images revel in soft, impressionistic tones and in their artificial consistency remind one of dioramas from the 19th century. Then, artists used just as illusionistic effects to form a neat, apparently transition-free unity between real-life plants and painted backgrounds. Ais’ summer-fresh repertoire of images switches from compositional landscape photography to scenic naturalism. They exhibit influence from the Japanese art of Ikebana and engender an exquisite, airy naturalness not least through the rustling, wild growth of real plants. The grasshopper’s perspective further strengthens the airy overall impression and is augmented by a finely extracted, sharp focus. Thus can the viewer zoom in quite close on this virtual scent and flowered spectacle of field sorrel and balsam, lemon balm and Azores thyme. At the same time, the pictures are especially convincing as harmoniously balanced compositions. With each picture, you are put on the track of a new, artificial experience in nature that an elaborate photographer intentionally conjured into a garden of visual perception.

Stephan Reisner

VITA

1971	born in Bilbao, Spain
	Studied Art at the University of the Basque Country, Spain
1997 - 1999	Doctorate from the Fine Arts faculty of the University of Basque Country, Spain
	Awarded a grant from the École des Beaux Arts, Paris, France
1971	Lives and works in Bilbao, Spain