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SKIN AND SCARS
This work
examines the fragility of the human condition through meticulously rendered
orifices and scars. Based on
computer scans, these graphite drawings both literally and figuratively
scrutinize notions of the “factual,” leading to reconsiderations of privacy,
identity, gender, race, beauty, and mortality. Through monumental scale and
devotion to the handmade, they viscerally engage conflicting experiences of
discomfort and fascination. Visual observation is taken to an extreme. An almost unimaginably slow process of drawing transforms a
speedily gained and often disregarded image into a meditative, expansive
experience. Microscopic
observations accumulate and develop into unpredictable connections. References are made to landscape, a
similar skin that is subject to both interior and exterior stress. The scab drawings, in particular,
aspire to Romantic sublime landscape, hopefully offering a healing for prior
violations. The colossal orifices,
pressed against glass, aim to convey a tension between intimacy and vastness
that evokes conflicting aspects of modern life. They are vulnerable to scrutiny yet mysterious, unique yet
anonymous, truthfully represented yet easily misread. Fragmentation of the
body, by technology, is explored through the incorporation of both human and
technological disruptions. The
limits of human stillness are precisely recorded in breath condensation and
twitching. Printing “failures,”
such as banding and pixellation, inspire new structural markmaking. These informational gaps, within a
seemingly factual image, open the way for experiencing complexity, enigma, and
the subjective.
-Cynthia Lin 4-10
DUST DRAWINGS: RE-SEEING THE BARELY VISIBLE
My ongoing purpose is to prolong the act of looking, to invite discovery of multiple and contradictory perceptions that unfold over time. Convincingly factual depictions of dust attract curious scrutiny that sharpens the eye, so that what initially seems random is recognized to be purposefully arranged individual calligraphy. A wonderment, inspired by miniature, evolves with continued looking, leading to other reflections of limitlessness-- the cosmos or a desert landscape, for example. An unwelcome moment, such as an encounter with uncleanliness, is lengthened and enriched through engaging details that intensify conflicting responses of seduction and repulsion. Thus time increasingly alters the experience of viewing these drawings, delivering restless reconfigurations, elusive as dust itself.
Ever-shifting perceptions drive this work, which seeks to demonstrate the enriching complexity of the transient and the irreconcilable. The entrypoint occurs at the edge of what can be seen, where the real and the illusory unaccountably intertwine, allowing the inexplicable to become believable.
The panel drawings initially appear to be luminous empty surfaces, containing barely discernible lines that invite closer inspection. When near enough to identify these intimate marks, the viewer literally loses sight of the overall picture. The whole can only be experienced by mentally reconstructing fragments. Unique and arbitrary chronologies develop, as each individual creates the work through their own process of seeing and remembering.
-Cynthia Lin 2-02 |
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