Augusta ́s work addresses the transitivity of being, the subjectivity of the gaze and the sublime. She proposes soft sublime terror as anthropocenic operational aesthetics. First, she examines what constitutes the unspoken power of the image and the pre objectual existence of a composition. She asks: What is the metaphysical evolution of an object or feeling as they endure through time and space?
She wonders how the sensitivity and cognition of the spectator, in turn, give existence to the image, and how it relates to transcendental idealism. With each gaze comes a unique point of view. To achieve this, she keeps the figuration open behind veils of paint, as an invitation for the viewer to form their own version of the artwork. A violent scream is blurred by non-categorical veils of translucent paint: plurality of overlaying, plurality of interpretations and truths.
Furthermore, the notion of The Sublime is the definition of his practice. On the one hand, explore the Daily Sublime, where everyday objects provoke the strongest emotions, and become the prism where memory, intuition and images meet. This is evocative of trance states, right between wakefulness and sleep, the power emanating from color and light, but also in the juxtaposition of observed objects from reality and formal pictorial marks.
On the other hand, it explores how the concept of The Sublime has evolved from the 18th century to the current anthropogenic reality. Moreover, she proposes the notion of the Anthropocene Sublime as an operative aesthetic.
Lardy observes how traditional romantic depictions of alpine landscapes present pristine scenes that are now the backdrop for a decaying ecosystem: Glaciers are melting, dams are being held back, rocks are breaking up. As we witness these landscapes being altered by the human geological impact on the earth, the power of the traditional Sublime transforms into a gentle terror, environmental distress. We endure a world of ecological destruction that evokes the post-human anguish felt by the young Romantic Werther when confronted with the power of nature.
Ultimately, the Sublime anthropocenic landscapes become cathartic undertakings overlaid with objects from everyday life, and the reminiscence of their form altered by time and intuition. They evoke the strongest emotions as she paints with layers of casein and shifting colors.
Lardy’s intention is to create a plausible world of possible pictorial realities that transcend categories of abstraction or figuration, where one feels completely absorbed by the concave depth of the flat surface of a canvas. She works towards possible pictorial worlds where an image is not expected to be attached to a painting, but where that image can be one of the many parts contributing to the solidity of these realities in their cognitive contribution to the conscious viewer. Augusta Lardy advocates for a form of painting that allows the medium to be the message, while also making room for a kind of figuration that doesn’t confine the work to the sum of its narrative.
