Bird No.5

Comment

Comment by Resident Curator on May 23, 2011 at 6:00pm

Curator Comment:

 

What an incredible piece.  It's breathtakingly beautiful in it's tragedy- your statement adds another layer of content and transforms a straightforward and sensitive depiction into one that is quite haunting.  The color in the negative space has a density that seems to come from pure pigment.  While the piece with the cooler greenish ground and cascading wing shape also is striking, (Bird No. 4) I feel the inclusion of the beak helps to render the structure of the bird, and it's dire situation.  The triadic configuration of the wings and feet is poetic, while the smaller scale also makes the bird in this piece more fragile- the feathers reach out with petal like tips. At first viewing the feathers look natural, but by contrast and in context I can see they're worse for wear.  The dinginess permeates throughout the body and the overlapping shapes become chaotic and torn.  The image is singular in that there's no other element to play against the broken body, or introduce the invisible destroyer alluded to in the statement.    I like how the body floats in the space, and we're suspended for a moment too.