There in the Air
There in the Air
Statement
I have meticulously created paintings that portray surreal narratives I have experienced over the past two years, 2020-22. Although I did not want it to be explicitly so or blatantly obvious, I am using covid as a lens that distorts the intricacies of our world. Hence the show’s title. Combined with referential imagery, contrasted darks and lights, atmosphere and humor, I wanted to tell these stories and show contradictions.
The paintings mainly depict New York City and capture the emptiness of urban life during the pandemic. There are no figures in the majority of these paintings. There is just one, Flight Over Leonard St., depicting a boy on a rooftop who is playing alone amongst imagined monsters that he will soon lose his toy plane to. I feel we can relate to this child as recent times have brought about new fears and uncertainties of the future. Yet his toy airplane is flying towards light. There is hope of a safe landing and retrieval of the plane.
Strong light is a motif that carries through the work as a symbol of a better future. Some paintings are homages to paintings from the past, like Arnold Bocklin’s Isle of the Dead. Others take us to barren lands in an end of the world scenario like Desert Thoughts, an homage to Lars von Triers’ film Melancholia.