Martin Waugh's Amazing Liquid Sculptures
Sculptures that exist (then disappear) in the blink of an eye are this artist’s specialty.
The Way Of Waugh
Martin Waugh is another artist I do not know personally. I know that we are alike, however, because we both have a great appreciation for short-lived fluid dynamic patterns. Waugh is a skilled photographer who opens our eyes to the true meaning of the word, “sculpture”. He shows great talent in his photographic captures of water drip splashes. He calls his photo captures by the name, “liquid sculptures”. He pushes the idea of sculpture to its logical limit.
Waugh’s sculptures last only a fraction of a second – they are water drip splashes, remember. He takes pains to set up these splashes, so, yes, he is sculpting them. He takes pains to record only their most attractive formations, so, yes, he has made an art of them.
Waugh catches a splash at its peak of appeal. Without the camera, human perception would have to operate on an incredibly fast time scale to see these fleeting masterpieces, let alone pause to appreciate them. Thanks to Waugh’s abilities, we not only see such formations in vivid detail, we also admire them as enduring artworks.
Splash Photography = Splash Philosophy
Maybe Waugh does not realize it, but he treads on intriguing philosophical ground, putting all the universe’s forms in their proper fluid places. He reminds me that everything is instantaneous, when we view it in the appropriate frame of reference. Eternity reduces reality itself to the supreme fluid, where every form is a sculpture of some infinitesimal instant. Fluid, again, is God, and form is just a splash in this grand fluid ocean.
Splash Master
I consider Martin Waugh a fellow fluidism artist. He deals with some of nature’s most elusive fluid beauty. He is a more knowledgeable photographer than me, who has access to better technical resources than I can conceive at the moment. Waugh combines and impeccable aesthetic sense with his technical knowledge to bring some of the universe’s smallest and fastest fluid events into razor-sharp focus. He, like Rein Nomm never looses sight of the fact that his images are mere two-dimensional representations of original three-dimensional phenomena. He is, in my opinion, a fluidism master.
