Rein Nomm's Ephemeral Art Forms

Updated on September 1, 2011

An ephemeral moment realized by Rein Nomm. -- STUMBLE UPON. See his gallery at http://nomm.com/

A Fellow Fluidist

The flowscapes of Rein Nomm are familiar territories for me. I do not know Nomm personally, but I know, from his art presentations on the internet, that we share an interest in fluid dynamic patterns. Nomm uses a very powerful word to describe his images – “ephemeral”. I have taken quite a liking to this word. “Ephemeral” is a word that looks elegant, and it sounds elegant when you say it aloud. It means “”short-lived, transient, not lasting very long, elusive, here one second and gone the next.” It is the perfect word to describe what Nomm and I are involved with.

I call my art by the name, “fluidism”. I consider Rein Nomm a fellow fluidism artist. I too deal with ephemeral fluid forms. My fluidism deals with ephemeral forms – short-lived, fluid dynamic patterns that emerge and retreat rapidly in various liquid mixtures that I concoct.

My word, "fluidism" names the style. Nomm’s word, "ephemeral" names the quality of the style.

Nomm’s Nomenclature

I want to give Rein Nomm full credit for his brilliant use of the word, “ephemeral”. He is the first person I know of to use this adjective in describing visual works of art where artists manipulate fluids to present peak patterns of fluid dynamic flow.

Nomm’s art is noteworthy in this respect, because it shows great awareness of natural, fragile beauty. Nomm, similar to me, photographs transient events in liquids as they stay wet and moving, in order to admire them later, after they no longer exist. I, therefore, identify with his sense of discovery, and I relate to his task of recording what human eyes otherwise could not see.

“Expression” Just An Expression

Nomm’s work, as any fluidism artist’s work, is not so much his own expression as it is the expression of the universe. He largely records primitive expressions of Nature, thereby abstracting the concept of expression entirely out of the domain of human will. In other words, the man is NOT expressing, but the universe, using the man as an instrument, is.

Fluid reality is the supreme expressive substrate of which all humans are actions. Fluid, thus, is The Supreme Being.

Perhaps without knowing it, Nomm participates in the tradition of Jackson Pollock. Pollock, who I believe knew that he was not expressing himself, nonetheless carried the reviewers’ label of the times – “abstract expressionist”. Pollock, in fact, admitted, “I am Nature.” What I think he meant is that he was an expression of nature or an expression of the cosmos.