Showing the Way

Showing the Way is one of 5 caryatids that make up the installation Still Standing Still. Showing the Way is an abstraction of the figure, broken up into constituent pieces, glazed with multiple layers of colors, repeated over a long duration, color accreted, relayered, and changing. As the body changes and the world changes, mutable, adaptable, aligned with future possibilities.

Still Standing Still is a series of pieces using the classical form of the Caryatid to structure my explorations of the authenticity of the archaic and investigating my biases regarding the meaning of purity of the unadulterated surface. Still Standing Still is work resulting from a period of introspection, challenge, self-assessment. Working with color is part of that. I shifted to working in color partly to find some glimpses of joy in my studio day and to pose a technical challenge to myself, but the deeper motivation was the result of self-questioning my presumptions.

I had read an article, Why We Need to Start Seeing the Classical World in Color, in the June 7, 2017 issue of Hyperallergic. The theme of the piece was further developed by other writers, so my initial interest was steadily nurtured. The thesis resonated with me, as my work has predominately been white over the years. It is true that my color choice was more about the nakedness of the surface, and I valued to color of raw clay, but the origins of my aesthetic, I believe, come from a certain reverence for antiquity. I had thought that painting or glazing my work gave it a false skin and that the work “uncovered” or raw, was more authentic. But as I thought more about what was implied by the whiteness, or even the purity of the unadulterated surface, I questioned my notions of beauty, taste, and the meaning of authenticity.

So, these new pieces come out of that exploration. I used the classical form of the Caryatid to structure the exploration, and the pieces in the series are more and less abstracted from the figure. Not surprisingly, the earlier pieces of the series are the most figurative and the last one, the most abstract.