Monday, May 18, 2009

Light Through The Web...




"Girl in Water"

Light Through The Web

Lauren Seiden’s images, often trawled from the depths of the world-wide web, express both the vagary of the image when pixilated and mechanically reproduced, as well as the primacy of the artist who has the power to re-vitalize the images into something much more vibrant. Indeed there is the sense that, by copying by hand something that has been mechanically reproduced, the artist is literally breathing new life into the image and the subject itself. Thus the eyes of Freckle-face stare out with the clairvoyance of awakening, and bodies described through the lattice of modulated grays and white spots of oil, graphite, and pencil seem to writhe and contract as if emerging from a deep dark slumber. With this new awakening, an invitation by the artist on behalf of her subjects bespeaks an intimacy with the subject that would otherwise have been impossible. The girl in the water, her hair as fluid as the mottled dark lines that compose the picture, closes her eyes to us, and yet we feel as if we are still there, if not in the water with her, at least right beside her. Her closed eyes are as much a gesture of trust to us as they are a dreamy act of necessity for her self. From the “web” to a web. This re-constitution of the computerized and de-personalized web photo into an image that permeates light and life thus invites the audience to re-consider this manufactured world in which we live, to find the exalted in the mundane, and yes, a thousand points of light within the shadows.


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