The
eclectic presentation of this portfolio is meant to present concurrent
ontological and epistemological searches in my painting. The dichotomous tension between
figurative and
non-objective imagery
is apparent initially, but breaks down upon closer inspection into more complex issues
surrounding representation and abstraction,
Downsizing, evokes Barnett
NewmanÕs WhoÕs Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue and Philip TaafeÕs We Are Not
Afraid,
while postulating an inevitable return to narration as the end result of
interpretation. Retribution
Stains
conflates the tyrannies of Platonic idealism, the constraints of Suprematist
utopianism, and the indignities of executing international justice, through its
black and white figure ground.
vision
and visuality, and
Blind Spot charts the site of
retinal attachment as that of endemic and systemic cultural bias and
ignorance. Surveillance investigates the two
polarities of the scopic field, glance and gaze or the dynamics of self and other. Its viewer/voyeur observes a hybrid,
libidinous ÒphallogocularcentricÓ creature projecting the reach of desire.
minor and
noble genres.
PlinyÕs ÒminorÓ genres include animal
painting (a selli) and representations
of food stuffs (obsonia ) of which much of my work could be considered
examples. His ÒnobleÓ genre,
reserved for gods and mythological subjects, is exemplified by the depictions
of the hundred-eyed Argus, bored to death by Hermes, in Shutdown: The Nap of
Equity,
and Kronos decapitated by his child in It Hurts Me More Than It Hurts You Despite PlinyÕs
distinctions, the high and the low cards are played here for comic relief and
with dead-pan sincerity.
Mimetic
approaches are covert in the pieces that seem to be patterned fields,
Trumpeting angels from MichelangeloÕs
Last Judgement are impossibly lost in the shards taxonomically displayed in Reconstructing
FatherÕs Wall . The floating dots
and dashes of Understudied
are faithfully rendered medications from an AIDS ÒcocktailÓ regimen,
subtly embedded in the. imprimatura of a nature morte.
just as
the severely edited pictorial spaces containing recognizable imagery are
extremely formal and highly abstracted.
Each painting takes unrepentant refuge in
the touch, the individual stroke or placement, as well as in the Benjaminian
conception of aura. The
importance of uniqueness is further intensified, despite a coolly classist
precision, through a self-conscious materiality. The work dissects and calls attention to the historical and
cultural associations of its constituent parts; its ground (terrycloth, vinyl,
plastic, wood, foil, raw cotton, sterile gauze, canvas, Belgian linen),
pigments (powders, dyes, cosmetic foundation), binders (oil, acrylic,
rabbit skin glue, toxic lead, gum Arabic, lacquer, resin), implements (brush, pan,
roller, finger, rag, ruler, swab), manner of execution (conscious and
unconscious design, organized and chance procedures, etc.),
and display (see enclosed
installation slides for further investigation of unconventional exhibition
formats for and probed boundaries of painting).
Compositional
and spatial features of this set of work are indebted to an Asiatic collapsed (restricted depth) and
simultaneously open
(free of wanton detail) traditional pictorial plane. To a large extent, this strategy is
shared in iconic imagery around the world. Spirals, balancing acts, and checked movements function as
visual tropes, focusing the viewerÕs attention inward, an implosion inciting
contemplation. The working space
unfolds within (unlike
Leon Battista
AlbertiÕs window), rather than opening up to, the viewer. Without essentialist pretensions, the
unambiguous and confrontational, if illusory, imagery is meant to engage the
viewer regardless of educational, cultural, and socio-economic background. The ambiguous, multiple, and
contradictory interpretive layers foster diverse readings of meaning. Accompanying textual frameworks are
offered to assist, but not narrow, the workÕs legibility.