Nature is Not your Friend- a consideration
Christin Couture
William Hosie
A 'pecha kucha' slide presentation
Hillside Salon, May 2010
University Museum of Contemporary Art
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
1.
This
exhibit considers Nature, both
Human Nature and the Natural World.
It is a broad selection of my painting – some recent, some older,
and some unresolved, that have undergone ‘interventions’ by WH
2.
Like an
invasive species these
‘interventions’ migrated onto paintings
as strategic color components and shapes.
We are opposites held together like magnetic poles in check.
This frisson can produce wonderfully unexpected results.
We share a large studio. Things happen
3.
The
gallery space itself becomes part
of the exhibition.
It’s a former Esty organ showroom- and still has the original niches,
cubicles and walls at odd angles- like an accordion.
Paintings and objects are placed according to a rhythm
So the eye travels across the space high and low and in between.
4.
My work
often favors the arcane as
a ‘remove in time’ to emphasize
Through the ‘Romantic’ what could be lost or transformed.
For me children embody both innocence & vulnerability
and also destruction & willfulness (the bad seed).
5.
The ‘interventions’ can also re-order forms and images.
Like a hurricane or tornado
Topsy turvy
6.
The
flow and paced disclosure become
like an elaborate 3d story board-
a shifting cinematic conduit out of frame.
(note a copy of Natural History Magazine underneath the leaning pedestal)
7.
Light has crossed the threshold
as cats roam across the rooftop.
Immanence Prevails.
8.
Color coded directives, especially opposites like red and green,
bring about a state or atmosphere of movement and change, or even indecision
- arrest and release- like highway signs and traffic lights.
(as Miguel Pinero said: “words stoppin’on red/, goin’ on green”)
9.
The
world here becomes a kind of no
man’s land
at the mercy of invasive signage, bar codes, overt directives,
undercurrents, atmospheres, thermometers, sticker tags and more
……even the idols of heathens.
10.
A
Continuity of Parks with a red rope barring entry.
11.
The Tiki
gods appear
along with a painted sketch of our backyard garden,
that also includes Masaccio’s figures of Adam and Eve
being expelled. (very small in right hand corner)
12.
Nature out of balance.
I think Icebergs are sublime, scary,
mysterious, beautiful forms.
They seem frozen in time but are ever changing.
What you see above is more treacherous down below.
(Beware of appearances.)
13.
14.
Color splitting apart 2 paintings
and joining them together like a mirror.
15.
The twins…one good and one evil, bound together.
Who will get to sit on the chair?
16.
Color and shape consider and adapt to the original.
The elements may seem discordant but the whole has unity, intensity.
Welcome.
17.
Children engage their impulses and undercurrents from within
as they occupy an uncertain environment outside.
Color coding works from both within and without
In this case Nature is really NOT your Friend
18.
Should
Nature be seen as a package?
19.
Coming almost
full circle…..
Two finished landscapes of our backyard,
and two large red dots next to them.
People ask: – “does that mean the paintings are sold?”
(Or maybe Nature is up for sale?)
20.
“TELL ALL THE TRUTH
BUT TELL IT SLANT”
said Emily Dickinson
Fair Enough.
Tell
all the Truth but tell it slant
Success
in Circuit lies
Too bright for our infirm Delight
The Truth's superb surprise
As Lightning to the Children eased
With explanation kind
The Truth must dazzle gradually
Or every man be blind—
—
Emily Dickinson