Hydrocephelus

Comment

Comment by Resident Curator on June 21, 2014 at 9:40am

Curator’s Comments:

 

These skeletal paintings blend the humorous with the macabre, in the esteemed calaveras tradition. The open headed Hydrocephalus is particularly dark but also has an inquisitive stance, as the gaze of the figure extends beyond the picture frame.   I also enjoy the large proportion of negative space in the composition, which isolates the form and allows greater appreciation of the subtle yellowish color and neutral tones. That’s not to say the pieces with two figures doesn’t extend a different kind of dynamic- the narrative in Switched Heads is straightforward and quite entertaining.  For me, the swapped skulls present the figures as toys or subversive dolls rather than animated life forms. The conundrum of exchanged heads or twisted conjoined torsos layers the morose subject with another disconsolate feature.  This ironically provides some levity, and it pushes past the anticipated boundary of normalcy.  I see that these pieces are created on found wooden supports, but the wood grain actually appears rather subtle in the online pictures.  I’m wondering if there are some scars or imperfections in the physical object that echo the demonstrated deformity of the subjects.