Archive for March 2008
Plasticity by Sabina Sule at 1870 Art Center
MISSION DISTRICT — What clearly gives an artwork its most defining and personable identity is the process by which the artist comes to produce it; even if it becomes an anti-process, meaning the deconstructing and scraping away of previous layers of work, or the negating and taking away of something positive in the visual space. And it is by such a method that painter Sabina Sule presents an exhibit of paintings whose very special identity has been rendered through the erasing and reworking of previous layers of work: beginning with precise drawings of real people only to undergo a metamorphosis through transparent layers of colors applied over them.
The process continues in the same manner, repeating another drawing of a human figure that is washed over again by transparent layers of paint. Sabina also scrapes off top layers to uncover the underlying images to rearrange them. She will continue this until the painting loses most of its representational aspect, a process that is reminiscent of the ancient Greek’s use of a “palimpsest”, meaning “again” and/or “I scrape.” The palimpsest is a manuscript that has been written on, scraped off, and used again. And so, like a palimpest, Sabina uses her canvas to add and scrape away images to gradually forge an essence of these human subjects whose evolution is recorded through the relationship of multiple layers that hide, morph and allow the forms to emerge into new objects.
Sabina says that it is the “plasticity” of these new objects that becomes her focus. “Plasticity here is the quality of being artificial, superficial, or synthetic,” she said. And so too, the act of encountering art itself in an exhibit can also be a many-layered experience. The presentations, poetry, music, conversation, and time to reflect on the artwork all serve to induce one’s experience with multiple layers of accessing that lasting impression of the artist’s work. And to penetrate the Plasticity, to set aside pretensions, Sabina’s work speaks to the individual viewer without fanfare, but with an honest account of the many transitions an image undergoes before it is complete in its identity.
“The earlier layers of visual information are hidden or modified by later ones,” said Sabina. “Similar revisions occur in human history. Factual information is manipulated by those in control, thus, creating the ’plastic language’ of selective truth.” And selective truth becomes more than a convenience when reflecting upon new artistic encounters, it becomes a way to process that first impression into an overall intellectual critique on how one’s artwork relates to others.
See more of Sabina’s work at www.sabinasule.com
View this article and samples of the artist’s work at http://www.1870artcenter.org/GuestArtists/SabinaSule/plasticityMar08.html
Plasticity by Sabina Sule was on exhibit at 1870 ART CENTER March 20 through May 4, 2008. An artist’s reception took place on Saturday, March 29. Visit http://www.1870artcenter.org for more info.
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View more photos from Arts Extra! at flickr.com/photos/artsextra.
All photos by Jamie Windborne unless otherwise noted. Copyright (C) 2007 Jamie Windborne, www.artsextra.com. All rights reserved.
