Fernan Escora: Playing with Intimacy
WEDNESDAY, 21 JUL 2010 - SATURDAY, 07 AUG 2010
Relationships are not always as clear and straightforward as the people in them would like them to be. In Playing with Intimacy, Escora explores the misunderstandings in relationships caused by differences in expectations, emotional baggage and the difficulty of generally seeing another eye-to-eye. With deft penwork on canvas, Escora lays down in 10 canvases, the intricacies of keeping relationships through his almost equally complex drawings.
Anyone who has been in a long-term relationship would understand the works in this exhibit. In the style in which he is known for, the artist creates form, visual depth and tone by cross hatching fields of parallel black lines on white primed canvas. From the myriad parallel lines that intersect in varying degrees spring forth pairs of figures that comprise the subject of the body of works.
In many of the works are a man and a woman, in varying stances, that literally do not see each other eye to eye. Some look at each other askance, in a manner that is both accusatory and defensive. Some, eyes glazed with images of what must be in their soul, only see what they want to see and fail to see each other. While others plainly refuse to look at each other.
Also common to many of the works are ominous clouds. Some, heavy and full, appear to “cry” in thick, dark trickles almost simulating blood. Others appear as thought balloons with various images - houses, goods, eyes - that stand for metaphors of desire and expectations. These clouds cover the mouths or the view of the figures, hindering honest communication.
In a few of the works, half-hidden in the background, is a third faceless figure, hinting at the perils when trust that enables intimacy is breached. In the canvases that comprise this exhibit are the stories of the conflicts that arise when two people try to merge their personal lives and build a life together.
Playing with Intimacy can be described as a thoughtful pause that is at the same time, a catharsis. It is an honest assessment of the intricacies of relationships and how the differences in expectations each person has, affects the tenuous balance adversely. With parallel lines that bump against each other, the artist creates complex pictures that hint to an even more complex reality. With the many darkened areas of heavily intersecting lines that figure in the background of the works is pathos emptying itself, laying the feelings bare to the spectator.
Anyone who has been in a long-term relationship would understand the works in this exhibit. In the style in which he is known for, the artist creates form, visual depth and tone by cross hatching fields of parallel black lines on white primed canvas. From the myriad parallel lines that intersect in varying degrees spring forth pairs of figures that comprise the subject of the body of works.
In many of the works are a man and a woman, in varying stances, that literally do not see each other eye to eye. Some look at each other askance, in a manner that is both accusatory and defensive. Some, eyes glazed with images of what must be in their soul, only see what they want to see and fail to see each other. While others plainly refuse to look at each other.
Also common to many of the works are ominous clouds. Some, heavy and full, appear to “cry” in thick, dark trickles almost simulating blood. Others appear as thought balloons with various images - houses, goods, eyes - that stand for metaphors of desire and expectations. These clouds cover the mouths or the view of the figures, hindering honest communication.
In a few of the works, half-hidden in the background, is a third faceless figure, hinting at the perils when trust that enables intimacy is breached. In the canvases that comprise this exhibit are the stories of the conflicts that arise when two people try to merge their personal lives and build a life together.
Playing with Intimacy can be described as a thoughtful pause that is at the same time, a catharsis. It is an honest assessment of the intricacies of relationships and how the differences in expectations each person has, affects the tenuous balance adversely. With parallel lines that bump against each other, the artist creates complex pictures that hint to an even more complex reality. With the many darkened areas of heavily intersecting lines that figure in the background of the works is pathos emptying itself, laying the feelings bare to the spectator.
So Close
609 x 609 cm
ink on canvas
SGD 1, 725
609 x 609 cm
ink on canvas
SGD 1, 725
