Soda Straw Displasia graphite drawing 20 x 18

Comment

Comment by Resident Curator on October 14, 2012 at 8:18pm

Curator’s Comment:  

 

Soda Straw Displasia is a piece that makes me think less (but only slightly less) is more. The ambiguity of the figurative form- and suggestion of genitalia is provocative and then slightly startling in the understanding of its graphic display. The undulating line and stark contrast of value play off of one another, so that the curving shapes soften the direct symmetry of the cleaved body.  I like the delicate, almost floral twisted designs.  They are anatomical, but fantastical; making me think the interior of the body is a true wonderland. But for all of the animated line and scrolled calligraphy, the stark white space on top is what sets this piece apart for me.  It is in the restraint of detail here, and suggestion of a hovering void that is most mysterious. The openness of the space also displays the figurative organic form as specimen; removed from the context of the whole body in a clinical, if not didactic fashion.  Again, I’m intrigued by what isn’t there.  The other black and white drawings soothe in a sort of undulating predictability- the writhing bodies produce a familiar rhythm, and it’s easy to get lost in the space .  The Procedure is one of my favorites in this grouping- the scissors and pins coldly inserting themselves into the otherwise fleshy mass.  Treated with similar marks, they conceptually intrude, but then melt into the forms.