Infinite is a film, photography and art project create by Hunter & Gatti with Nick Fouquet. A metaphor for what lies below the physical surface as a window to the subject´s interior life; a creative catharsis and another reality of nature experimented through the infrared photography.
What if we break with the idea of creativity related to our existing knowledge in order to create? What if we see things away from the pre-stablished?
The “visible” spectrum, probably the most well-known of human sensory limitations, as the human eye is only capable of perceiving light at wavelenghts between 390 and 750 nanometers. Of course, calling it the “visible” spectrum is a bit of a misnomer, as plenty of animals are capable of perceiving light with frequencies outside this relatively narrow band of electromagnetic radiation.
Using infrared black and white photography, the images shift, as you just saw, the greens become almost white and the blues a dramatic dark. The colors are not distorted, a different part of the spectrum is simply captured, it is another reality, it totally differs from the reality we know, that is why cameras and films have been always prepared to eliminate ultraviolet and infrared light, so that their results is the one that human eye sees, and that´s what we change.
The brain takes thoughts and information from the senses and shapes them according to its understanding of the world. But brain works differently on certain substances like LSD, rewing the brain´s clock to a time before it learned, that way you might experience altered perceptions. If your prior belief in that the sun is orage and your prior belief melts, then the sun may appear green.
A creative mind is the one that sees information and relates it to their experiences and existing knowledge in order to create. We wanted to create a film and a series of works of art that experiments with the concept of the senses, the shamanic idea of exploring other realities, finding new ways, the sensory exploration, a ritual catharsis experienced in the search of new ideas.
Some of the black and white images were printed on custom metallic paper covered with a layer of resin that reacts in a very special way to certain types of paint & alcohol.
Nick Fouquet, protagonist, inspiration and part of the creative team on this project. He has been defined as a psychedelic adventurer and his passion for traveling, discovering and creating distill a viscerality and passion that are undoubtedly evident in this project along with his unique distressed western style.
Nick Fouquet is without a doubt the leading international hat designer. Long with that recognition have come collaborations with esteemed outfits such as Rochas, Jacques Marie Mage, Borsalino as well as also being tapped to generate head gear for the Givenchy runway show in 2020 or a unique way of redefining the essence of the iconic Lucchese brand in 2022. The quality of his creations is unmatched and quite a sight to behold! Stars like Jennifer Aniston, Cara Delavingne, Brad Pitt, Jennifer Lopez, Johnny Depp, Jeff Goldblum fall in love with his meticulously detailed and personaly handmade hats.
For the artist Joseph Beuys, human beings can transform society through creativity. Performance art was an artistic medium that could have such a transformative effect as shamanism, that is why this project, is an awakening of the senses that connects with Joseph Beuys, with the idea that the performance art is a transformative medium to free people from preset ideas to reinterpret reality.
The iconic Joseph Beuys hat is without a doubt an aesthetic connection with Nick Fouquet and how both of them use the felt as an essential medium of their art. For Beuys, felt was a symbol of protection, but also of transformation, understanding the felt as catharsis of change.
The presence of Joseph Beuys is represented in this project not only through felt, but also through the face covered in gold leaf, the hare, the wolf or the flowers.
Also some of the works were also treated with thin paper dyed with organic inks, achieving a process of developing and subsequently treating the images inspired by the way Nick Fouquet works his hats manually.