Slab of Existence

Comment

Comment by Resident Curator on June 18, 2018 at 9:07am

Curator’s Comments:  

 

I continue to return to this curious piece to admire its silky, and vaguely disturbing abstract forms.  Perhaps the visual discomfort comes from an uneasiness in identifying the suggestive figurative subject, which also appears to shift slightly in space because of its semi-translucency.  The form has fleshy appendages coming off its centralized core, but without a head or tail for orientation.  The light green ground enhances the smooth, organic feel of the space, but the pale pattern in the background doesn’t read as sky.  The tinted orange and violet brushstrokes (media isn’t indicated) neither advance nor recede in the environment, further holding us in limbo as we contemplate the Slab of Existence. Looking back through your work on the site I remember admiring some of the more fantastical and colorful pieces.  Many appear to capture a moment of cosmic eruption or crystalline transformation.  But the Slab of Existence nags at the viewer with less saturated and fantastical colors and shapes- perhaps because it's closer to our own corporeal actuality.