Putting on an exhibition that has been on hold for over a year is like opening up a pre-pandemic time capsule. In this time capsule lies the work of artists working in mostly black and white, stark forms that seem so well coordinated as a grouping. Indeed it was planned that way, so that the entire exhibition would look like a well choreographed dance.
The new version of Paper and Steel, is mostly the same, but does introduce some modifications and current work. How could we not be affected by the sea change of social unrest and a pandemic of biblical proportions?
My new work, “Killing One’s Brother with a Jawbone,” was created recently in response to social unrest, but also on a personal level, for my own unrest at having misplaced most of my drawings for this exhibition and wondering what I could do on short notice. So I tore up an old drawing that I had made of Schiavone’s “Cain Murdering Abel” and superimposed the torn pieces onto an old abstract ink painting on mulberry paper. The abstract painting had been done about thirty-five years ago and was languishing away in my closet in a frame that I wanted to use. The torn drawing seemed to dovetail rather nicely with the old abstract painting, the swirling composition echoed by the swirling patterns of alcohol and ink.
The title of the new work is a double entendre, with the secondary meaning having nothing to do with smuttiness, however. In the original Andrea Schiavone painting, from which I had made a sketch on location in the mid 1990's, Cain is depicted striking Abel with a stag jawbone. “Jawboning” is a phrase used to describe persuasion, pressure, or arm twisting verbal behavior. Over the course of this pandemic year, I’ve often been wary of the use of language, especially if language hides malicious intent or stirs up hatred towards various groups of people. The moment I placed the drawing on top of the painting, that sentiment was clarified.
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