Friday, December 11, 2009

The air between

I first saw works by Jacob Hashimoto a couple of years ago at Art Basel, Miami...I was enthralled by his precision in execution and the overall decorative qualities of these multiple circles, pentagons and octagons...this layering of paper covering light wood armatures...it reminded me of thousands of floating kites, gently hovering above the earth....

The way they combine is visually interesting and complex, because of the relationships set up by their proximity...like the works of Seurat, dots of pigment separately convey one idea visually, but put a green dot next to a red and see the vibration...optically, colors together react in our brain, attempting to unify...this work is about shallow space, relationships between tint, tone and hues and organization...a symphony of expression...most beautiful...

Thursday, December 10, 2009

The effects of imagination

Angularity and moving lines make this photograph by Julie Blackmon a very interesting image...the eye moving across all the angles, along the floor, up the back of the chair and over to the off kilter portrait down the window to the radiator, on to the cushions and back again.

The boy and his reaction to his environment adds a interesting conceptual dimension to the image...reinforcing the scattered nature of the room...hyper and out of control, the image and the emotion of the photograph...these are the remains of his efforts, how children change their environment when they are in their imagination.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Master and servant

Natural mythology...narrative and reality meet in an odd sadistic world...animals take on human characteristics, cruelty and dominance the genus and species are all combined and recombined, the most appealing visual and textural components have been genetically extracted, connected and contained into these museum quality sculptures.

They feel so real, Enrique Gomez de Molina has done an amazing job not only assembling seamless animal forms but he adds to the narrative by chaining another pet/servant insect to its wrist...the posture and attitude is not of a caged animal but of a dominant, free range master, controlling with purpose its slave. These forms act as metaphors, carrying the great burdens of our human existence.

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Circular textures

Found objects, recombined in a decorative way, referring back to Baroque and Gothic imagery...I am always attracted to decorative....maybe we are like birds looking for sparkly bobbles to bring to our nest...we are visually seduced by the colors, textures and sheen...this piece by Alfonso Ossorio utilizes repetition in color and shape to move the eye around the picture plane.

Artists visually calm the eye in this sea of activity through strong symmetry and larger areas of monochromatic color usage...they eye needs areas to relax otherwise it becomes overwhelming...it negates the beauty and decorative qualities and just confuses the mind. The circular forms are repeated and carry the eye over the circular picture plane.