The Two of Triangles

JOHN STURGEON

the Two of Triangles

Steadily grinning from under a straw hat, a beguiling shadow character alternately manipulates the camera position then resituates himself in front of it, creating an uneasy yet humorous mood. But the trickster exposes a transformative power through a series of triangular drawings and body-mirror-triangle positions, which point to the sexual nature of psychic transformation.

Video: https://vimeo.com/38517605

While made independently Shapes from the Bone Change (1975), the Two of Triangles (1975) and Conjunct (1976) can be viewed as a trilogy of works that outline and explore the identification of the anima, or female element, in the male psyche. It is about the rebirth of the unconscious.

Peter Goulds. L.A. Louver 1977

Sturgeon's work can be seen as a continuing process of concentration and abstraction. Through the process of a continuing introspection, the viewer of Sturgeon's work is confronted with the conflict between the rational and observable aspects of an outer (world) coldly portrayed in black and white video, and a 'mystical' non-objective set of symbols and activities constructed from the language of a variety of non-rational symbol systems. Both worlds are posed as mutually inclusive; both seem clearly related to Sturgeon's exploration of his consciousness.

David A. Ross, director

Long Beach Museum of Art, 1978

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JOHN STURGEON

My tapes germinate from experiences, visions and dreams; expanding in a gestation process where ideas are manipulated as notations, drawings and hieroglyphs. I view my work as poetic, as a synthesis of drawings, painting, and sculptural concerns, as well as sound and time compositions. The intent is to distill the creative process into concise metaphors, which convey the initial power and energy of the psychic experiences. The structure attempts to suspend the viewer's conscious act of intellectualization and place him in a state conducive to direct experience. Each video traces an expansion of my boundaries, electromagnetic diagrams of self, a continual probing and documenting with the video eye, the video ear, the whirling texture of being.