Bret Hansen
The Edge of Earth
The Truth Too Late
Contact
The Edge of Earth
48 in. x 60 in
Acrylic on wood panel
About the Event Horizon series
The paintings in Event Horizon are about being suspended between two realities. On a societal level, we’re living in a time of intense upheaval. Our world order is in collapse but a new paradigm has yet to emerge. On a personal level, we each experience periods of transition, where old identity structures seem no longer adequate, but a new way of being is beyond grasp. Rendered with hard-edges and unnatural colors, my paintings depict landscapes at dusk. Recurring visual motifs—suns, clouds, horizon lines, and color gradations—portray the optical effects of the setting sun just before it slips out of view. Drip marks that are intentionally designed rather than accidents of a painterly process suggest a technological world in the throes of dissolution. The series title, Event Horizon, refers to a black hole’s point of no return—the gravitational threshold, beyond which, nothing that enters can ever escape. It’s the ultimate in-between space, separating the visible universe from unknowable realms. In most of my pieces, graphically stylized clouds play a central role. I see clouds as fellow inhabitants of in-between spaces. Hovering between heaven and earth, they belong to neither. Similarly, we exist in a tumultuous and liminal present, exiled from our past yet unable to imagine a future. Perhaps clouds can provide us comfort as we navigate our passage from one world order to the next.