Carcass

Comment

Comment by Resident Curator on August 31, 2016 at 7:51pm

Curator’s Comments:

 

Carcass is a gorgeous drawing of relatively mundane, albeit complex objects.  The hyper realism and spatial illusion in the piece is enhanced by the atmospheric perspective.  Without any other reference or vantage points, the value contrast comes into sharp focus as we move closer to the ‘front’ of the picture plane.  But there’s also the effect of weightlessness, as the ropes aren’t tethered to a visible frame. The saddles float in a triadic grouping, strengthening their (human) figurative associations.  Unlike the works identified as saddle sketches, this piece for me conjures social relationships, and moves beyond the beautifully rendered still life.  The irony in the title of course is that the leather is in fact remnant of a cow carcass. One may consider Magritte’s Treason of Images, Ceci n'est pas une pipe in this framework, that in of course is a pipe. Nonetheless, the spatial positioning does imbue the saddles with more corporeal forms, in bodily mass and animalistic reference.  I see them as solid, weighty beings rather than coverings.