This was an installation I've been meaning to post: it was part of an exhibition at the Macy Gallery, Teachers College, last February, "Studio Practices".
10"x 10" monotypes, on heavyweight printmaking paper, were attached with loops of thread onto pins which held them out from the wall about 2.5 inches. The wooden shelf in front held wooden blocks with combinations of some of the same and similiar images.
These are some of the questions I asked with this piece: How does a portrait engage the viewer in a process of visual reconstruction of meaning? Where does the essential meaning in a human face reside? What do we see when we think we see signs of the inner life of those closest to us? What role does gesture play in deciphering meaning?
The images were based on a photographs I took of family members. I tried to deconstruct the images to find out at what point they became unintelligible, and conversely, when they became something more than random smears of ink on pieces of paper. Inherent characteristics of the monotype process, such as the lack of precise control, relative quickness, and repetition with variation, distanced the final art work from both the original visual resource (the photograph) and the hand of the artist. The multi-step process itself intervenes between artist and subject, making the familiar strange. A recognizable human face is reconstructed through the physical act of putting the pieces together again, yet the fissures and fragments, the archaeology of the image, is evident.
I'm impressed with your painting/monotype. It's really cool. It has a devotional feeling about it, and I like how the images coalesce and fall apart. It made me think about how the eye travels and focuses on part or all of the subject being gazed upon, such as the skin on the back of a hand, or an eyelid, and how it does this unheeded by thought or purpose. The way the hands cradled the head, how a hand raises and cups the light, made me think back to the religious narrative works I was looking at recently, and how significant the placement of the figure, or the pose of the figure, can be.
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