Infected Paintings as an Allegory of Migration
Published
at Hyperallergic on December 7, 2015
Installation
view of Joseph Nechvatal, ÔOdyssey pandemOnium: a migrational metaphorÕ at
Galerie Richard
Sing
to me of the man, Muse,
the
man of twists and turns,
driven
time and again off course.
ÑHomerÕs
The
Odyssey, Robert Fagles translation (1996)
Trouble resounds in the work of Joseph Nechvatal.
Indeed, for an artist who has spent the better part of his career manipulating
computer-generated viruses to wreak havoc on their image hosts, trouble inheres
in the very means of production. But as with all of NechvatalÕs work Ñ he is
also a prolific writer (and Hyperallergic
contributor), theorist, and sound artist Ñ the element of agitation
is twofold, serving as both agent of destruction and vehicle for transformation.
Joseph
Nechvatal, ÒpenelOpe pandemOniumÓ (2014), computer-robotic assisted acrylic on
velour
So it is fitting that with his latest
show at Galerie Richard, Odyssey
pandemOnium: a migrational metaphor, Nechvatal turns his viral
paradigm to Òthe man of twists and turnsÓ: HomerÕs cunning hero whose very name
means trouble. But the story of Odysseus and his epically tumultuous voyage is
only a point of departure; the loss and longing of anyone who has ever been
displaced or set adrift are the ultimate subjects here. Fraught with tension
and achingly beautiful, the show presents a powerful and, given the timeliness
of the subject, hopeful metaphor for the perennially human search for home.
In the 10 works on view Ñ all of
them digital paintings on a luscious velour ground oriented vertically to
suggest portals Ñ muted images of Odysseus and his mythic cohorts hover,
apparition-like, in luminous fields of color. Earthy umbers, fleshy pinks, and
grays evocative of aged stone predominate, all imbued with a watery softness.
Throughout, ambiguous forms resembling neural networks, fragments of illegible
text, and X-rays of human viscera morph and merge, seamlessly interweaving with
the figures and faces. Further underscoring the themes of agony and tension,
the densely layered images are punctuated by bright orthogonal bands that
bisect the picture plane at various intervals. Pervading all, there is ÒnoiseÓ
Ñ visual evidence of the virusÕs effects on the palimpsestic images. Fractured,
tumultuous, and resolutely complex, the paintings nonetheless exude uncanny,
womb-like warmth.
Joseph
Nechvatal, Òvexed telemachus in agOnyÓ (2014), computer-robotic assisted
acrylic on velour, 66 x 42 in.
Those left behind loom large in any
migrantÕs story, and here the suffering of Telemachus and Penelope is a
recurring motif. In Òvexed telemachus in agOnyÓ (all works 2014), the
visage of the anguished son, obscured by skeins of dentrite-like filaments, is
just barely visible. Framed on three sides by narrow bars of color and further
occluded by veils of milky pigment, Telemachus is imprisoned, his despair
palpable. In Òvexed telemachus adriftÓ and Òdrifting telemachus,Ó large
horizontal bands of deep black become gaping voids resonant with loss.
But it is Penelope who anchors the show.
Presiding over the galleryÕs back wall, ÒpenelOpe pandemOniumÓ features a
classically posed female figure obscured by an explosive field of visual noise
that shifts from pink to blue. A single ultramarine band cuts vertically down
one side. The most dramatic piece in the show, it is also the richest. For here
what we see is one image of Penelope being virally annihilated while another Ñ
a copy of the same Ñ emerges, inchoate, underneath. One imagines that in the
fictive space of the painting there are infinitely many Penelopes, each one
only an ontological possibility until the one above it is destroyed. Evoking
both dissolution and becoming, the piece is a powerful reminder of the
inextricable link between death and birth. Old identities must die for new ones
to emerge.
Installation
view of Joseph Nechvatal, ÔOdyssey pandemOnium: a migrational metaphorÕ at
Galerie Richard
In a year that has
witnessed the most dramatic migrant crisis weÕve seen in our lifetimes, it is
difficult not to read this show as a response to current events. But in a
larger sense, we are all migrants. In a culture both ideologically and
spiritually adrift, suspended between a bankrupt and moribund modernity and we
know not what, we are all at sea. Given the current climate of endgame
rhetoric, part of what makes Nechvatal so singular and so compelling is his
refusal to settle for any of it. Instead, what he offers is hope that out of the
cauldron of upheaval will eventually emerge new forms and new ways of being as
yet unimaginable. The return to The Odyssey as a way
of exploring these themes makes this show particularly poignant. It is, after
all, a tale of homecoming. Worn and weary, trouble does return home, he and all
of Ithaca irrevocably transformed.
Joseph NechvatalÕs Odyssey
pandemOnium: a migrational metaphor at Galerie Richard (121 Orchard Street, Lower
East Side, Manhattan) through December 16, 2015.