Blog post by Sarah Bonhote

Through the eyes of an artist, there is a conceptual view. Jason Middlebrook has brought the notion of destruction to our eyes in a very grand manner, with a hint of beauty.

The exhibition as a whole is placed at a monumental scale and dictates one’s personal sense of being. The materials Middlebrook is working with offer contradictory feelings of humans versus nature. Particularly in his wooden plank series, he dematerializes the wood by essentially covering it with acrylic spray paint, similar to a graffiti artist’s style. Not only does the paint symbolize a particular artist, but it represents the destruction that we as humans cause daily to our nature world (the wood). In this particular piece, humans are winning the battle.

This is not the only representation of the battle of human versus nature represented in Jason Middlebrooks exhibition. In the center of the large space resides a large floor to ceiling waterfall titled after Frank Lloyd Wright’s Falling Water. At first glance the material gives the feeling of mass and weight, although giving it a closer look one comes to realize the material Middlebrook has used is simply styrofoam and once again acrylic spray paint. This use of material is an interesting choice, due to its inability to breakdown, causing permanent damage to the earth and leave an impact in terms of carbon footprint. One takes this material choice to represent humans, and their choices of impact on the earth. The cascading water in this piece represents nature and its ability to withstand itself through the manmade destruction the human race has forced on the planet. When viewed from afar, humans seem to also be winning this battle, although upon further inspection, the water is breaking down the styrofoam and pushing through is massive material to claim its right as number one. In Falling Water, nature is winning.

Jason Middlebrook shows concepts of humans versus nature throughout his pieces, and it can be seen in these particular works shown in MASSMoCA.