-Featured Artists-
Marie Gagnon
Margot Bird
James C. Bassett
in
Visions of Absolution
Visions of Absolution
By
Pete Milosovich © 2011
Contemporary ‘reality’ remains the inexplicable concubine of manipulation, hidden from sight and publicly decried, yet most welcome in circles of power. The tangible boundaries that become produced: political, ethical, and geographical serve to define the world we live in, objective at best like the lavish projection of a land mass, or with insidious intent like the ideological boundaries defining immigrants as something other than human. But for the ones that completely lack any notion of a ‘defensible’ humanity, to define the ‘other’ as inferior remains the most despicable of political ploys, and perhaps the most consistent trait of the collective and tyrannical will the contemptuous few seek to exploit.
Suspended in time and ripped from the context of our consumer reality, floating heads and showers of eyeballs reflect a radical transfigurement of both animals and people, eradicating order in the realm of Margot Bird’s fascinating explorations. This sense of chaos demonstrates subject matter more akin to the behavior of Mother Nature, a force both imagined and ‘real,’ the one final paradox humanity can scarcely control. Instead, the pundits of compassion feebly express their concern for a ‘Mother Nature’ that may one day drown us beneath the sorrow of unwilling subjects rendered mute by shackles of bureaucratic ignorance. As Ms. Bird clearly understands, the forces of nature have become ripped free, unleashed among the unsuspecting inhabitants of our deep blue planet.
Boundary disputes, resource disputes, this never ending display of the ideologue on parade brand the human race with another significant hot iron imprint of distorted truths leading the masses along ‘glorious’ pathways of war. Sons and daughters become fractured and denied the humanity they deserve when they insist on fighting for political falsehoods disguised as undeniable truths. “Liberty Leading the People,” by Delacroix ennobles the end result of so much blood shed, as long as the rivers of blood become curtailed, a sense of order imposed, and a clear cut ideology places the ‘other’ in the resulting us vs. them category, denying the suffering caused by systematic destruction. Even in the high tech world of overwhelming data collection, and increasingly sophisticated ‘social’ monitoring, the truth remains as elusive as ever. And finally when the protests of the masses become significant, yet never quite significant enough too much time has elapsed. Somehow the issue at hand, which should remain of paramount importance, simply fades away into the air of disbelief.
This permanent state of conflict that so many choose to reside in retards growth, traps the individual within a perpetual state of chaos, moving from one trap to the next. Delicately reaching out from fear, afraid to discover the personal demons that lurk within Pandora’s box. Will our fingers become pricked, or will our psychic attachments become permanently scarred as we transform our inward appearance into a state of corruption fueled by power and manipulation?
Boundary disputes, resource disputes, this never ending display of the ideologue on parade brand the human race with another significant hot iron imprint of distorted truths leading the masses along ‘glorious’ pathways of war. Sons and daughters become fractured and denied the humanity they deserve when they insist on fighting for political falsehoods disguised as undeniable truths. “Liberty Leading the People,” by Delacroix ennobles the end result of so much blood shed, as long as the rivers of blood become curtailed, a sense of order imposed, and a clear cut ideology places the ‘other’ in the resulting us vs. them category, denying the suffering caused by systematic destruction. Even in the high tech world of overwhelming data collection, and increasingly sophisticated ‘social’ monitoring, the truth remains as elusive as ever. And finally when the protests of the masses become significant, yet never quite significant enough too much time has elapsed. Somehow the issue at hand, which should remain of paramount importance, simply fades away into the air of disbelief.
This permanent state of conflict that so many choose to reside in retards growth, traps the individual within a perpetual state of chaos, moving from one trap to the next. Delicately reaching out from fear, afraid to discover the personal demons that lurk within Pandora’s box. Will our fingers become pricked, or will our psychic attachments become permanently scarred as we transform our inward appearance into a state of corruption fueled by power and manipulation?
James C. Bassett’s ingenious creations of diabolical games, designed perhaps to reflect the ‘true’ nature of life - its pitfalls and traps, and the inevitable cruelty humanity inflicts on one another. Penetrating these boundaries with humorous insight, as well as dangerous sharp objects, Mr. Basset creates a world rooted in rune signs and mysticism. Playing boards that evoke labyrinthine mazes; a race to a deadly finish line where the winner becomes the first victim of impalement, or navigating through a medieval castle with no clear cut direction on a constructed playing board of sadomasochistic design. These creations, molded, tangible, and elegant reveal a world defined by psychic boundaries, both dangerous and deadly. Such crafty designs compel us to deny ‘marketable’ reality in favor of the imagination, through metaphorical associations, and explorations that penetrate boundaries of daily, mundane expectations...
Marie Gagnon’s abstract representations of our immediate, urban environment yield a far different impression of the world at large. The city looms ever larger in the imaginations of collective wonder. Ms. Gagnon chooses to minimize rendering in favor of a painterly approach reminding us of the importance of interpretation. Interpretation does not reside in the deceitful hands of duplication, but perhaps fulfills the need to articulate feelings and possibilities throughout a world where so much feeling has been eradicated; blown out by the immersion of our collective will in a ‘reality’ of duplicated, and magnified atrocities.
Mr. Basset’s work eludes to the fact that so much despicable behavior remains a measure of the deep seated need to articulate, beautify, and perhaps institutionalize cruelty in ways that deny and contradict. None the less these explorations stem from an organized realm of psychic forms. Ms Gagnon’s use of forms remains far kinder, but in the greater scheme of these compelling explorations one notion cannot exist without the other. Beauty and pain become intertwined transfixed in a region where the literal becomes obliterated in favor of a thoughtful and expressive response to physical boundaries subverted by complex metaphors.
Clearly a sense of place draws our attention to the deep impenetrable vistas of Ms. Gagnon’s approach, but upon further contemplation the interaction between color, line, and form create a magnificent subjective world that subverts all the pain, aimless wanderings, corporate logos, symbols of wealth, lines of transportation and commerce, business, the homeless, children and families…echoes of what we already know; existence that lingers, but pales in comparison to the massive expanse of civilization Ms. Gagnon so thoughtfully articulates. In the end we are left standing naked, our imaginations stripped clean by the purity of line, texture, and form that denotes a deep seated reaction to the chaotic bastion of mother nature ready to shower us with mud and filth…
Exalted beyond the realm of tangible reality these visions of absolution explore realms of complex possibilities where borders and boundaries are not designed to remain fixed. The psychotic neurosis of the human animal reverberates somewhere between the poles of Mr. Basset’s psychic dilemmas and Ms. Birds abstract iconography. Bursting forth from this apparent limitless growth of civilization Ms. Gagnon’s work grounds our sensibilities. Yet behind every doorway, lurking within the deep impenetrable shadows of deceit the arrogance of the human animal hides its true nature behind waves of ideological tidings, and political good cheer...
Mr. Basset’s work eludes to the fact that so much despicable behavior remains a measure of the deep seated need to articulate, beautify, and perhaps institutionalize cruelty in ways that deny and contradict. None the less these explorations stem from an organized realm of psychic forms. Ms Gagnon’s use of forms remains far kinder, but in the greater scheme of these compelling explorations one notion cannot exist without the other. Beauty and pain become intertwined transfixed in a region where the literal becomes obliterated in favor of a thoughtful and expressive response to physical boundaries subverted by complex metaphors.
Clearly a sense of place draws our attention to the deep impenetrable vistas of Ms. Gagnon’s approach, but upon further contemplation the interaction between color, line, and form create a magnificent subjective world that subverts all the pain, aimless wanderings, corporate logos, symbols of wealth, lines of transportation and commerce, business, the homeless, children and families…echoes of what we already know; existence that lingers, but pales in comparison to the massive expanse of civilization Ms. Gagnon so thoughtfully articulates. In the end we are left standing naked, our imaginations stripped clean by the purity of line, texture, and form that denotes a deep seated reaction to the chaotic bastion of mother nature ready to shower us with mud and filth…
Exalted beyond the realm of tangible reality these visions of absolution explore realms of complex possibilities where borders and boundaries are not designed to remain fixed. The psychotic neurosis of the human animal reverberates somewhere between the poles of Mr. Basset’s psychic dilemmas and Ms. Birds abstract iconography. Bursting forth from this apparent limitless growth of civilization Ms. Gagnon’s work grounds our sensibilities. Yet behind every doorway, lurking within the deep impenetrable shadows of deceit the arrogance of the human animal hides its true nature behind waves of ideological tidings, and political good cheer...
