d’Arte Board

This is one of my favorite pieces, but even after all this talking it may be that it is such because its a very inside joke.

11″ x 24″ Graphite, ink and acrylic on paper. Its a large piece that is hard to fit on your screen, but a larger version will be po

This continues the basic theme of the last post in that it faithfully represents an abstract image.

However this piece incorporates Symbolism. Symbolism is a different form of representation in fiction and art. In art you might represent a fish realistically, but that fish itself represents Jesus, often as a narrative device.

In short, one thing represents another.

This pertains directly to the issues that led to this whole series of work. Photography was necessary to represent the original painting in the form I wanted. The last drawing attempted to accurately portray that photograph, but is still just standing in for the original. It is one thing standing in for another. A non-narrative form of symbolism.

So in this I worked symbolism in absurdly. All other forms of representation and symbolism are also absurd, we just accept it because we can see ties between the various. The fish = Jesus because one of his miracles involved fish. But its still absurd. I just took out the middle man.

I used wood floorboards to symbolize color and tone in this piece. Based upon the previous drawing I catalogued the different blues and their depth of tone and hue. I then represented each as a different direction of wood panelling, with the density of grain marks representing the tone. The canvas in the photograph is represented as parquette flooring.

I found this whole thing to be hilarious enough to spend 3 months squiggling in the floorboard lines for this. This is also when I turned the composition sideways, as an homage to Asian Landscape paintings.

If you’re scoring at home, the forms in this accurately portray the photograph. The floorboards are themselves realistically represented. But then I’m using completely irrelevant objects to represent, not a narrative, but aesthetic elements that are meant to exist for their own sake. I’ve removed them in favor of somethign else completely. Then I turned the entire composition on its side to reference a completely unrelated genre of art. And added a red color splash that has nothing to do with the original. From beginning to end the piece is about representation, but makes a mockery of the entire exercise.

The piece makes no sense at all.

Yet every decision was made with very conscious awareness that each layer would make it make less sense. It’s the most conceptual work I’ve ever done, yet that aspect is virtually opaque to any viewer. And this is why I love it. Aside from execution, reception or any other factor, it is an elaborate, labor-intensive inside joke I played on myself.

After the jump, I’ll present the huge version in case anyone wants to see the details.

-JD
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