Mostly white pieces with bursts or partially hidden deep hues... and recently mostly white pieces with sharp bits of super high-key almost flourescent colors. The contradiction which I tend to like is that my imagery is becoming more polarized than ever.
A few pieces are all nature and sex, the next few pieces will be overlapping arrangements of machine guns. However, I treat it all the same. Four out of Five pieces I make lately are mostly subtle whites with bits of radiant color bursting out.... Sex and violence I suppose. I love not planning bodies of work. I love the conversation the works have from piece to piece and what the majority consensus is after six months or so. But now I have to plan where bodies of work (or a few at a time) are going physically. It's a blessing and a curse.
I think of a body of work (a solo show or something) as an album. My favorite band Yo La Tengo does it best - check out
I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass. The flow of different moods, tempos and suggestions is brilliant!
Seemingly different sounds but the heart is still the same. But can I make a whole body of work, let's say for a show in London this March, with the same songs? The mostly subtle, gently complicated ones with loud chords piercing through here and there? I'm concerned about the artificial colors, I admit it. Here are a few recent examples:
Then this morning I happened to be looking at a Duccio Catalog. You know, the italian renaissane painter.
I used to like him a lot but not for color, instead for weird use of miniture toy-like cities with godzilla sized characters
stepping over mountains. Maybe it was my super-charged caffiene buzz or something but I noticed all the highly saturated, almost unnatural colors.... especially if I put my eyes real close. So then I put them even closer by scanning two images and blowing up the color...
...and this is Christ's blood blown-up...
I realize that I'm looking at an enlarged reproduction but I think the idea is clear. They seem unnatural at first but then
think of what a sunset looks like if you break it down, or an autumn leaf, or areas of skin during different physical and emotional states of arousal. I don't feel much more resolved but I certainly am more interested. Let's see what's next.
p.s. you can see what I'm up to at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/aaronwexler/
http://aaronwexler.com/
5 comments:
Aaron I really loved this post. Loved the augmentation of those pieces, they're pieces in and of themselves.
That contradiction of artificial and natural is a nice risk to take I think and perhaps a hard one to pull, but this bit of research within Duccio has done some good. I thought about that stuff while in Rome when seeing old paintings get restored and I'd be like, "naw that can't be its original color, it's too synthetic looking for those pieces.
But I'm really digging where these pieces are. The black lines are downright freaking gorgeous too bro.
Yo I posted a remix from "Where I'm from" by the Digs on the samba and thought of you.
peace... blesssings on the show in London, can't wait to hear the album.
I have always been super impressed with your understanding of your work, not to mention the work itself.
looking good. and yeah to what toddy said.
Thanks you guys and gal for the kind words.
this sucks - i can't tell people that i'm an artist anymore. bloom killed me. thanks Aaron, you win.
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