Gate-Bound

Comment

Comment by Resident Curator on January 3, 2013 at 5:02pm

Curator’s Comment:  

 

I’m most attracted to the composition in this piece entitled Gate Bound- the strength of the image is in the unexpected vantage point, and arrested motion.  While some of the other pieces in the series expertly capture the flash of intense movement, in this image the rider and horse seem to swim in thick air or water; motion waves slowly rippling out from their center wake.  The lower contrast of value also diffuses the figure-ground relationship, despite the strong diagonal thrust of the rider and graphic quality of the black and white numbers on their uniforms. I don’t know if this is a painting on paper, but it has some of the transitory brushstrokes I often see in monotype, so I’m curious about media. In any case, the absence of color is also an interesting aesthetic decision, as it removes the image from what would be expected as a photographically representational depiction or illustration. Given that the figures turn their backs to the viewer it compounds the voyeuristic sensation, and puts us squarely in the rider’s space. We aren’t spectators capturing or witnessing frozen action, but are held in the tense moment before the race.