If our world is composed of overlapping stimuli which create constant sensory overload, then why should visual art limit itself to any one discipline such as painting, sculpture, print, video or computerized digital images? Is it not true that imagery is inseparable from sound and evolution in time? And if that is the case, shouldn’t art be a mirror that accurately reflects our environment, society and culture?
With the assistance of a graduate student physicist I built my first computerized dimming system in 1968. It was programmed for an infinite number of lighting combinations which created a multi-sensory environment where two-dimensional images became indistinguishable from the 3D objects and sculpturally painted elements in my work. There was an overlay of evolving colored lights and projections in conjunction with a looped sound system which distorted the viewer’s perception of his/her surrounding physical space, thereby successfully integrating all artistic media into one indistinguishable statement or genre which I call fusion art.
As an artist I want to bridge the existing barriers between all disciplines such as painting, sculpture, light, sound, performance theatre, video and digital art. I want to make these individual genres indecipherable from one another. I love figurative painting and I am firmly committed to it. My belief is that by breaking away from the canvas I can bring the classical approach into the contemporary arena, especially when I am incorporating computer generated art, artificial illumination and video projections. In this way, I am creating a bridge between the past and the present, where classical tradition fuses with our continuing cultural and technological evolution.
—Shalom Neuman
Galleries Painting Sculpture