In his 1915 book Three Lectures on Aesthetics, the British philosopher and political theorist Bernard Bosanquet asserted that esoteric beauty is that which “gives us, at a given moment, too much of what we would be ready to enjoy fully if we could only take it all in.” Bosanquet, who dedicated his social life to community and political activism (he was married to the social theorist and reformer Helen Dendy), was intellectually driven by the capacity and efficacy of aesthetics to imagine a radically different world and to stimulate “the great nerves of humanity.”
This transformative approach to aesthetics asks us to abandon the comfort and banality of convention and turn instead to works that evoke esoteric beauty. Bosanquet identified three attributes of esoteric beauty: complexity, tension, and breadth. He believed that this kind of beauty found in art provokes complexity, anxiety, and vastness — “a kind of dismantling of the conventional world.” That is, looking intently and intently at things reveals layers of awareness and consciousness not typically available in human experience.
Installation view of “Casual Loop” at Silver Lens Gallery
What is to be gained from this perseverance? Bosanquet saw art as an exercise in self-education, a series of learning opportunities, and the experience of a work of art as a joy and freedom in itself.
There is both joy and freedom in the work of mixed media artist Bernardo Packin, despite it being buried beneath a crude structure of everyday artisanal materials. Packin’s solo exhibition, “Causal Loops,” at Silver Lens Gallery, is a show of sprawling assemblages with gritty, rough textures that evoke ruins.
“Truth and logic are the only way to survive #05”
Completed after three years of intensive creative work, “Causal Loops” is an active exploration of Bosanquet’s concept of esoteric beauty. Author Josephine Roque describes Paquin’s work in a similar way in her exhibition notes: “…esoteric beauty, composed in various media, represents an element of Paquin’s artistic practice.” Throughout the exhibition, Paquin blends his artisanal techniques with a machinist-like interest in debris and worn materials. The rigor of cement, which serves as the medium for his sculptures, serves as the foundation for structures that fold and unfold, repeat and recur over time.
“What I learned from my paintings” #2
The highlight of the exhibition is a piece titled “Lottery of Birth.” A huge, expansive canvas made from five panels of board mixed with cement, Paquin’s work is filled with tiny details and ephemeral objects: cardboard, metal wire, paintbrushes, etc. These details coalesce into a ruin-like structure, full of mysterious history and symbolic meaning.
Elsewhere in the exhibition, Paquin molds and layers concrete into intriguing shapes, such as the “White Noise” series, which features miniature wooden squares outlined and splattered with streaks of cement. These works recall Paquin’s interest in scale, playing with contrast and tone and deftly disrupting degrees of curiosity.
“White Noise” series
But what I’m most fascinated by is a series of works collectively called “Lessons from Painting.” These pieces demonstrate the artisan’s interest in all kinds of materials, using bits of fabric, wood, and metal to fashion some kind of alien contraption. In these works, Paquin uses wooden canvases as a springboard from which to let loose his invention: tangled ropes spill over lines of dried cement, little wooden rectangles create tunnels, and scraps of dangling fabric tie together strange contraptions.
The titles of these works best describe Paquin’s eclecticism. To see them as an extension of his painterly practice means exploring how the medium influences the compositions and the cracks that underpin these structures. With their specificity and attention to detail, and a masterful display of different craftsmanship, “Causal Loops” transports us into a world filled with the complexity and power of the most difficult beauty.
