Remapping DC 2015
These acrylic on canvas works seek to depict city spaces with a technique similar to that of a film negative in order to emphasize the spaces and emptiness rather than the objects within the frame of vision. The works force an inversion of the default perspective of the viewer (which tends to emphasize objects over emptiness) by highlighting what is typically viewed as background and bringing it into the foreground in vibrant colors.
The blue in the paintings represents the sky and emptiness while the yellow reflects the glow of the sun off surfaces on the ground. The short lines and symbols—in red, pink, yellow, orange, or blue—represent spray-painted street markings that note the presence (or future presence) of gas, water, electrical, or telecommunication lines in areas under construction, something I have frequently seen in U.S. cities. Because of the disorienting shift in perspective, the audience may be all the more tempted to decipher those lines, much as I was when I first saw them. Viewers may spontaneously begin see other images within the paintings or mistake the paintings for maps before finally noting that the white portions of the canvas contain the outlines of the buildings, trees, and other objects their eyes are conditioned to look for. The work forces the audience to experience absence as presence and presence as absence, inviting viewers to consider their relationship to both.
The blue in the paintings represents the sky and emptiness while the yellow reflects the glow of the sun off surfaces on the ground. The short lines and symbols—in red, pink, yellow, orange, or blue—represent spray-painted street markings that note the presence (or future presence) of gas, water, electrical, or telecommunication lines in areas under construction, something I have frequently seen in U.S. cities. Because of the disorienting shift in perspective, the audience may be all the more tempted to decipher those lines, much as I was when I first saw them. Viewers may spontaneously begin see other images within the paintings or mistake the paintings for maps before finally noting that the white portions of the canvas contain the outlines of the buildings, trees, and other objects their eyes are conditioned to look for. The work forces the audience to experience absence as presence and presence as absence, inviting viewers to consider their relationship to both.
