Reconsidering the Abstract-Representational Dichotomy
The conventional narrative of modern art positions abstraction as a progressive movement away from representation—a linear trajectory from mimetic depiction toward non-referential form. This understanding, while useful for certain art historical frameworks, fails to capture a more complex phenomenon observable in process-based art: the tendency of highly abstract processes to generate forms that appear strikingly referential. Contemporary environmental artists, who allow natural forces to shape materials rather than imposing representational intent, frequently encounter this phenomenon. This essay explores the philosophical and theoretical underpinnings of what I term the "cycle of abstraction"—a circular relationship between abstraction and representation that challenges binary categorizations and reveals deeper connections between natural processes, human perception, and artistic creation.
The Ontology of Abstraction
To understand the cycle of abstraction, we must first reconsider what abstraction itself entails. Philosophically, abstraction has been conceptualized in multiple ways: as formal reduction (Clement Greenberg), as spiritual expression (Wassily Kandinsky), as psychological externalization (expressionism), or as conceptual distillation (minimalism). These frameworks generally presume abstraction involves moving away from resemblance to objects in the world.
However, phenomenologists like Maurice Merleau-Ponty suggest a different understanding. In "Eye and Mind," Merleau-Ponty proposes that abstraction in art doesn't abandon the visible world but reveals the processes by which visibility itself comes into being. The abstract artist doesn't turn away from nature but accesses deeper structures that generate natural appearances. This phenomenological perspective helps explain why process-driven abstraction often cycles back to referential forms—it engages with the same generative structures that produce recognizable phenomena in nature.
Morphogenesis and Material Agency
The biological concept of morphogenesis—how organisms develop their shape—provides further theoretical insight. Biologist D'Arcy Thompson in "On Growth and Form" demonstrated how physical forces like surface tension, fluid dynamics, and structural optimization shape biological forms. These same forces operate when artists engage in process-based abstraction, particularly when working with fluid materials like ink and environmental conditions.
Philosopher Manuel DeLanda, extending Deleuze's material vitalism, describes how matter possesses its own "morphogenetic potential"—inherent tendencies to organize in particular patterns under specific conditions. When artists surrender partial control to material processes, they activate these inherent potentials rather than imposing form externally. The referential forms that emerge aren't coincidental but reflect universal principles of material organization that operate across scales and contexts.
Contemporary artists working with environmental processes access these morphogenetic principles directly. When ink on paper develops branching patterns resembling trees, or flowing formations suggesting aquatic creatures, these resemblances stem from shared morphogenetic principles rather than intentional representation or mere coincidence.
Evolutionary Aesthetics and Ecological Perception
Why humans so readily perceive referential forms in abstract patterns connects to evolutionary aesthetics and ecological perception theory. Cognitive scientist V.S. Ramachandran proposes that aesthetic preferences reflect evolutionary adaptations—we are primed to recognize pattern, order, and certain natural forms because such recognition offered survival advantages to our ancestors.
James Gibson's ecological theory of perception suggests we don't passively receive visual data but actively detect "invariants" and "affordances"—stable patterns and action possibilities in our environment. Our perceptual systems evolved to extract meaningful structure from visual chaos, particularly structures relevant to survival.
This evolutionary framework explains why viewers consistently identify similar referential forms in abstract works—our perceptual systems are fundamentally attuned to detect patterns resembling faces, animals, plants, and water sources, even when such resemblances are statistically marginal. The cycle of abstraction thus reveals not just properties of the artwork but the structured nature of human perception itself.
Semiotic Dimensions: Index, Icon, Symbol
Semiotician C.S. Peirce's tripartite classification of signs offers another theoretical lens. Peirce distinguished between iconic signs (resembling their referent), indexical signs (physically connected to their referent), and symbolic signs (conventionally related to their referent).
Process-based environmental art creates a fascinating collision of these categories. Such work is strongly indexical—environmental forces physically shape the material, creating a direct causal connection between sign and referent. Yet the resulting patterns often become iconic, resembling natural forms through physical parallel rather than mimetic intention. This dual indexical-iconic quality explains why abstract process art so frequently cycles back to referential imagery—it carries both physical traces of environmental forces and emergent resemblances to forms shaped by those same forces in nature.
Artists working with environmental processes create what might be termed "natural indexes that become icons"—physical traces that develop referential resemblance through shared causal structures rather than intentional depiction.
The Mindful Environment: Distributed Cognition and Extended Mind
Recent theories of distributed cognition and the extended mind offer additional insight. Philosophers Andy Clark and David Chalmers have argued that cognitive processes extend beyond the brain to encompass environmental interactions. Artist and environment function together as a cognitive system, with the artwork emerging from their interaction.
In process-based environmental art, cognition is distributed across artist, materials, and environment. The artist establishes initial conditions, but environmental factors actively participate in determining the final form. The resulting work manifests what philosopher Alva Noë calls "enactive perception"—understanding through active engagement rather than passive observation.
This distributed creativity challenges romantic notions of the artist as sole author while elevating the environment from passive subject to active collaborator. The cycle of abstraction becomes a manifestation of extended mind—the environment "thinking through" materials, with the artist functioning as facilitator rather than dictator of forms.
Beyond Human/Nature Dualism: New Materialist Perspectives
The cycle of abstraction also resonates with new materialist philosophy, which challenges human/nature dualism and anthropocentric assumptions. Theorists like Jane Bennett propose "vibrant materialism"—recognizing agency and vitality in non-human materiality rather than treating matter as passive substrate for human action.
Process-based environmental art exemplifies this perspective by allowing materials and environmental forces genuine agency in determining artistic outcomes. When abstract processes generate referential forms without human intention, they demonstrate what Karen Barad calls "agential realism"—the idea that reality emerges through intra-actions of human and non-human actors rather than being imposed by human consciousness upon passive matter.
The fish-like forms that emerge in Kager's blue aluminum pieces or the tree and frog visible in his monochromatic work represent not anthropomorphic projection but recognition of genuine pattern similarities that transcend the human/nature divide. The cycle of abstraction thus becomes a philosophical demonstration of new materialist principles—abstract process generates referential imagery not through human design but through material agency.
Conclusion: From Linear Progression to Cyclical Understanding
The cycle of abstraction challenges linear narratives of artistic development and categorical distinctions between abstraction and representation. Rather than opposing poles, abstraction and representation function as phases in a continuous cycle, with highly abstract processes frequently generating referential forms through shared physical principles rather than mimetic intention.
This cyclical understanding has significant implications for aesthetics, environmental philosophy, and artistic practice. It suggests abstraction at its most profound doesn't abandon the referential but accesses it through different means—not depicting nature but embodying its processes. When abstraction emerges through engagement with natural forces rather than merely stylistic decisions, the cycle back to referential imagery becomes not just possible but probable.
Contemporary environmental artists demonstrate this cycle with particular clarity, revealing abstraction not as departure from nature but as immersion in its fundamental patterns and processes. The philosophical significance extends beyond aesthetics to epistemology and ontology—suggesting that human cognition, artistic creation, and natural formation share fundamental structural principles that manifest across seemingly disparate domains.
The cycle of abstraction thus offers not just a framework for understanding certain artistic phenomena but a philosophical paradigm that bridges traditional divides between mind and matter, human and environment, intention and emergence. It reveals art not as imposition of human will upon passive material but as collaborative dialogue with an environment that actively shapes the artistic outcome through processes that parallel its own formation of natural structures.
- Markus Kager
May 12, 2025