Clayton Huber - "Natural Composer"

Artist Information:

I am a graduating senior from Granville, Ohio. I enjoy creating and lighting different environments, composing music, and exploring different mediums of storytelling. My work often involves bringing to light different social and environmental issues that are important to me.

https://claysblog617382617.wordpress.com/

Insta @chuber345


 

Natural Composer

Video, 2020, 960 x 540, 1 min 06 sec

video still from Clayton Huber's "Natural Composer"

 

For Natural Composer, I was inspired by a recent book I read called The Overstory by Richard Powers. In particular, a certain quote that really resonated with me. While the quote speaks for itself, I wanted to build a visual connection that goes along with it. Forests are special things we have in our world and living in Columbus I can rarely experience them. And because I’ve missed them, I wanted to bring the forest to the viewer. My animated forest feels calm; we hear the wind in the trees, and a piano playing in the distance. We follow a piece of paper swaying in the breeze. It softly floats to a piano’s stand where a piano is playing as if nature was orchestrating it. On the sheet of paper, you read, “What you make from a tree should be at least as miraculous as what you cut down.” There is a material connection among everything you see within the animation. The paper allows the music to be written, and the wood allows the piano to be played. There are multiple questions that I thought about while creating this project. What does it mean to me to create art and to have the ability to do so. This idea of motivation and what it means to create work I am proud of. And lastly, what the lives of future artists will be like, when the desire and ability to create art don’t overlap. Living in a society that feels unsustainable, I worry about artists not being allowed to express themselves in the future.