These “dust paintings" invite existential questions and compel the viewer to enter into a unique, mysterious world. With Collecting Dust, Allison Cortson has brought about a conjoining of fine art, philosophy and science with the force of the immediacy of her materials.
Collecting Dust
These “dust paintings" invite existential questions and compel the viewer to enter
into a unique, mysterious world. With Collecting Dust, Allison Cortson has brought
about a conjoining of fine art, philosophy and science with the force of the
immediacy of her materials. The solidity of photo-realistic subjects rendered in
vibrant oils is surrounded by Cortson’s version of ‘unbearable lightness,’ the utter
neutrality of white space, and subtle objects—room furnishings, a music studio, even
a Ford Torino—all clearly delineated in dust collected from the various subjects’
personal environments. Captured within an ordinary, everyday moment, a subject is
not floating, yet that is the sensation. Here, the once-familiar world becomes a
cipher. Dust equals fragility. The viewer can no longer take physical reality for
granted; it is instantly tenuous and tentative.
On one level, Cortson’s paintings are a lesson in the processes of matter and space,
even making suggestions about time. We know, for example, that matter is mostly
empty space. It is then possible that most of what we see is an illusion, or at
least a transparency. According to the laws of physics, we humans and everything
around us is continually disintegrating and regenerating. But in its quest to reveal
truth, science is mostly a beginning, mere intellectual commentary on the natural
world. Only art has the power to touch our deepest emotions and hone our insights.
[…]
- Rosemarie Dimatteo
Opening on Friday, June 02, 6-9 pm, until June 30, 2006
Michael Janssen Gallery
Norbertstrasse 14-16 - Cologne
Opening Hours: Tue-Fri 10-13 h, 15-18 h, Sat 12-15 h