Neap, Mound, Eric Buechel

Neap is cosmic. As above, so below—the blue sky, the surface of the water, the dark ends of space, the deep ocean. Mirrors, mirrors everywhere, nor any drop to drink. The mirror world is like ours but inaccessible. You can look but you can’t touch. Music is like that too—you can’t touch, but you can listen. Neap is music and music is magic. Inventor of illusions Jim Steinmeyer famously said that magicians guard an empty safe. The tools are simple—levers, magnets, mirrors—but they can summon miracles in the hands of an artist. Priests call it transubstantiation. Neap is two people and tubes and wood and wires. Neap is an invitation. The general problem with landscape paintings is that you are stuck outside of them (stuck inside). Neap invites you to enter the painting, to go outside and explore the illusory landscape, the mirror world. Step in, step out. Eat the mushroom, collect the stars. Touch the source.