Thoughts and concepts
I have a lot of thoughts that usually stay in my notebooks because I lack the time to formulate them into structured essays or what nots. All be it this section of my website is a place for miss matched ideas, formal and informal.
Neo-Realism and Sad Farmers
Realism stripped away a certain majesty that came with paintings of its time (the 1840s). I love to categorise Realism as paintings of sad farmers. Where do you see sad farmers in your day-to-day life, even in the modern context? The image of this sad farmer is hidden behind screens and through humanless purchasing methods. An electric screen at a fast-food restaurant or a self-service counter at the grocery store. Now comes the tricky part, where I call fast food works and equivalent works the sad farmers of this world. I believe the wall of majesty has been restored, blanketing our eyes.
People no longer see the person working behind the counter as someone working to fulfil their economic needs. People now see them as the hand that gives them their food. You can see this in how people, or at the very least a small yet loud minority, treat these sorts of people. The proposal of Neo-Realism (not to be mistaken with a complicated geo-political school of thought) is to take Realism's core, snatch majesty away from our ideas of the world, and transpose it over a modern context. I want to see the person/people who hand me my food and bag my groceries.
Pictura Ex Machina
Exhibition Review/ Application writing for university.
In a small gallery, The Little Machine, there was recently an exhibit called Pictura Ex Machina, made up of work by Paul Hoban and Sarah crowEST. The title, Picture Ex Machina, references the concept of Deus Ex Machina, the saviour from the machine, a trop in media, modern and ancient. This idea of a saviour from some mechanism speaks to the core of the display, the idea that through the process, the machine itself, artwork can be created free of concern.
Paul Hoban displays this through his work of painting skins, artworks painted initially on pieces of plastic and then torn off, turned so that their backsides face the audience, and stuck to a separate surface to make a completely new painting. Sarah crowEST portrays the study required to master skills in painting on canvas, colour swatch tests and annotation in their displayed works. Hoban's work also has the attribute of annotations; writing, often backwards due to the nature of the work's making, is visible in his works. Hoban’s writings are subtle and invite the audience to participate and find its meaning.
​
A work that exemplifies this concept with the utmost confidence and respect for the audience is a large painting named Namecaller. This colossal work is at the entrance of the gallery; it holds the viewer with its flickering nature, and a mixture of matt black paint sits as the base background of the painting, as a glossy darker black spaghetti across the surface. It holds a simmering quality as the viewer is drawing closer. The light shifts and reflects different positions of the work. The process displays the raw machinery of the work betrayed by its organic beauty. What draws the viewer in is very fine writing, barely noticeable on the surface of the work, like notes taken a thousand times over in its the bowls of creation. This work, through its physical nature, the subtle understated writing, and the mystery of its working, is a work saved by its process, a piece of art that captures the rawness of a process.
​
To See the works talked about please see The Little Machine's (Pictura ex Machina – The Little Machine) website where they Display photos of current/past Exhibits.