But If You Break Down

Comment

Comment by Resident Curator on February 1, 2015 at 6:56pm

Curator’s Comments:

 

Fishwife may be my favorite among your prolific output of mixed media collages.  The large head at the top of the picture steadies the movement of the other small brightly colored pieces.  I’m partial to the way the fish appear to swim through the barrier of the barbed wire.  In addition to creating fluid movement, there’s an interesting juxtaposition between soft living beings and hard edged barbs.  Perhaps because of the Asian subject, this piece doesn’t seem to be as traditionally nostalgic as some of your other works that contain old collaged farm photographs.  The small amount of printed or transferred text in Fishwife also sets up the piece by way of title or identity, rather than a purely textural element. Embedded in the woman’s hair, it also nicely integrates into the surrounding texture and value pattern.  I also enjoy But if You Break Down because of the lack of specific narrative.  Perhaps because of the title and by viewing it in context of the other works I’m able to extract feelings about familial warnings and folk traditions.  But from a purely formal standpoint, the design of the composition shares a proportional shift that succeeds in Fishwife.  The large dominant form of the car grill becomes the facial portrait from which the landscape moves and swims. The tilting of the car is unexpected, and produces a considerable among of tension or emotional angst; something has obviously gone wrong in the idyllic space.  This piece succeeds without the text, but also seems to be great use of digital transfer, with image seamlessly weaving together digital and analog techniques.