re-title.com

The photographs on this page are of an artwork titled: "Tar and Feather Painting,First Variation". The piece was exhibited at the Irving Goldman Gallery, Jersey City, NJ in 2002. Dimensions variable. This version: 84x84x52". Materials: Stretched canvas,roofing cement(tar),goose feathers and cinder blocks.

What attracts me to tar and feather my paintings is the significance of meaning that the material suggests. It allows me to ask the question: What kind of treatment can painting endure? Suspending the canvas horizontally on cinder blocks is one formal way to investigate that idea and is the first in a series of six versions each using a structural method to hold a tarred and featherred painting up to scrutiny. The painting becomes a type of offering. In a certain sense I am attempting to offer a painting up for contemplation to ask about its identity: How should it be treated? What defines it as a language? How is meaning created and deciphered? The raw and aggressive treatment towards the artwork is in contrast with the formal properties of the piece because as a painting, it maintains an easthetic appeal. This duality intrigues me because "Painting", as a language, contains a multitude of meanings. What is most important to me is using certain materials and creating proper structures that allow for painting's identity and social function to be questioned; not to limit its capacity but to augment its possibilities. Studies on paper for Variations #2 through #6 can be viewed on the second page.