Under the Volcano

Nowadays people seem to be categorized as either pragmatists or idealists. In most cases an artist is in the second category. Just being an artist can involve a clumsy process of navigating the world. In any case, anyone who has the ability to construct coherent arguments, through logical combinations, will be heard and understood immediately. This would seem to bring about a certain disadvantage in art, if the quest that leads to meaning is omitted, then curiosity is not satisfied, and there are no artistic results.

John Isaacs is an intensely curious artist who is not afraid to explore ideas repeatedly, nor limit or commit himself to one medium. His work is enriched by all available and existent activities and materials, including drawing, painting, collage, hyperrealistic pieces of flesh, ceramics, neon signs, and marble sculptures. Isaacs’ diverse process and materials brings along an extraordinary creative freedom that links the sensory with the symbolic, which is consummated in an empirical understanding.

In Under the Volcano, Isaacs time travels. The title is a direct reference to Mount Vesuvius, however it is taken from Malcolm Lowry’s iconic 1947 homonymous novel set in Mexico. While visiting Pompeii in 2023 Isaacs discovered another format to produce objective, abstract imagery in the ruins of the ancient Roman city. 

Pompeii, along with Herculaneum, its sister city, was buried under 4 to 6 meters of volcanic ash and pumice during the eruption Vesuvius in 79 AD. A natural disaster buried and preserved the city, which was hidden for centuries. During later excavations, archeologists inserted terracotta tiles into the walls to indicate the separation between the original structures and the subsequent restoration. Lines of tiles made graphic gestures that were formed by an apocalyptic event. They reminded Isaacs of the simple and delicate marks of abstract artists, such as the pencil lines of Cy Twombly paintings.

As seen in Via de la Fortuna, Via del Abbondanza, Vicolo dei Labirinto (2024) Isaacs’ abstract lines appear to be fast and randomly formed, yet they carry a heavy historical authenticity. If art can be understood as a system that produces and establishes meanings, Under The Volcano is an emotional landscape loaded with meanings that the artist found in a devastating event. The terracotta bricks kiss the ancient ruins in a quick and fatal gesture reminiscing The Kiss (1907-1908) by the Romanian artist Constantin Brâncuși.

In his book Novelist as a Vocation Haruki Murakami wrote:

Two men were going to contemplate Mount Fuji. One of the men, the more intelligent of the two, observed the mountain from different angles and returned home after becoming convinced that, in fact, the famous Mount Fuji was a marvel without a doubt. He was a pragmatic man, quick to understand things. The other, on the contrary, did not fully understand where all this fascination with the mountain came from and that is why he stayed there alone and climbed to the top on foot. It took him a long time to reach it and it required a considerable effort… but he managed to physically understand what Mount Fuji was… he was able to understand the fascination it produced in people.

There is no doubt that Isaacs’ artistic process for this exhibition consisted of repeatedly scaling the tragedy he found in Pompeii. He embarked on working with ceramics to physically show the power of the disaster’s hellish temperatures (Sleepwalking into the Anthropocene, 2024), leaving imprints of sweaty feet covered in salt (A perfect soul, 2022).

Without a doubt, bronze is perceived as something permanent. But this is not the case for Isaacs, the inherent heat in Isaacs’ work makes it almost liquid, transformed into something else, like a carrot in If your dreams are not your own how can you claim to own them, (2024). Isaacs’ work generates different ways of perceiving history. With a considerable effort and fascination, he approaches materials that declare their time, reestablishing parameters of value and meaning. He transforms history from ambiguous objects, thus making an extensive, idealist artist’s journey through time successful.

Romeo Gómez López