{"id":8520,"date":"2016-01-01T20:16:25","date_gmt":"2016-01-02T04:16:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leannechristie.com\/deathmask\/?page_id=8520"},"modified":"2020-04-19T00:30:53","modified_gmt":"2020-04-19T00:30:53","slug":"deathmask","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/leannemchristie.com\/deathmask\/","title":{"rendered":"Death Mask"},"content":{"rendered":"

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<\/h1>\n

People + Time + Urban Space<\/h2>\n

=<\/h2>\n

complexity<\/h2>\n

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What am I on about?<\/h2>\n

It’s the difference between complexity and complicated and how you react to each. \u00a0It’s how chefs, distillers and vintners make use of time as an ingredient to add that depth of flavor or complexity. \u00a0It is what you respond to in a city, the places you have loved and all of the spaces that have left you with a sense of disease and a reticence to return.<\/p>\n

What is it? The secret\u00a0is the ingredient of complexity or people + time + place to interact and oil paint is made to submit itself to the catalyst of time.\u00a0 To harness this ingredient in the way that the chef and the vintner does and to master it as I do colour and brushstroke, is to open the next door. The question is: what is the vehicle for time\u00a0in oil painting? \u00a0The chef makes use of slow cooking, multi-level process’ and sometimes just allowing the elements to act. \u00a0The vintner uses casks, the harvest seasons and bottle closing methods, so what is the vehicle in painting?<\/p>\n

Not perfecting too soon, reverse and slow the completion of a work. Physically act on a painting to force it to step backwards in time and then to allow the paint space to have a relationship with itself while you are having a relationship with the painting.\u00a0 Invite the viewer to act on the painting with brushwork and colour that signals, no that demands participation – relationship.<\/p>\n

I used the January painting<\/a> 2016 to start looking at the answer and it seemed obvious to use the Vancouver Viaducts<\/a> as my subject as they seem to be urban manifestations of complexity.<\/p>\n

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The first painting<\/h2>\n

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So why the Viaducts?<\/h2>\n

Good question and one that I have been asking myself since I chose to use them as the subject. \u00a0It seemed to be a ‘no-brainer’ at the time but the more I look at them the more I am not sure what to do. \u00a0After all, this is not meant to be a insightful and concise history on the structures nor a thoughtful, educated critique of the plans that have unfolded for this area of the city. \u00a0At the time of choosing the Viaducts, they presented a meeting point for discourse as their presence and also the lack of presence of the rest of the Freeway system to which they were meant to be attached, represent varied political, racial, economical and urban dreams. They have been bullies, murderers, caretakers, capitalists, communists, friends, enemies and orphans. \u00a0 It is hard to keep in mind that this is about painting as it is easy to run with the prevailing temperature of a moment and think only about the story but the main question for me is where is the intersection with painting? I have chosen a naturally complex urban structure but where and what are the paintings? This is the question that lead me to understand that this collection while being the Death Mask of the Viaducts (they are intended to reflect\u00a0the physical spaces which the Viaducts occupy and define), intersect with painting through the idea of complexity. \u00a0All that stands now is to understand how to use time as a pigment to introduce a complexity similar to that of the Viaducts, into the paintings.<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t