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Fantasize no more; this pipe dream, I imagine, has been made real by Julie Mehretu.
Mehretu makes large-scale abstract paintings that are just oozing with movement. The paintings' strength are in their layering: each work has a thick build up of layers of acrylic, pencil, pen, and ink. The works speak to architecture and city life, specifically referenc
ing the congestion
and noise associated with the latter. She uses the general set ups of real gridded cities and overlays them in such a way that creates new abstract cities; in this process, the constant movement of the city is slowed and flattened, its many dimensions reduced to a single, visible map.
The clear sense of motion in Mehretu's work clearly elicit that of both the abstract expressionists before her and similar performance artists who make time-based art. The paintings act as a simplified compression of time while serving as documentation of her own time and movements. Two narratives are thus created through the pieces, one telling a story of flux and evanescence in a bigger, empty space and a second chronicling Mehretu's singular movements into a permanent fixture. In a sense, this makes the paintings incredibly personal.
Notions of intimacy come u
p over and over in the work, perhaps due to the nature of the artist's subject matters. In these landscapes, Mehretu creates busy cities, which are already notorious for being cold and impersonal, and puts her viewers right in the midst of their chaos. The imagery could be described as reductive and even confusing, representing specific places and people as dots or triangles or lines. In this way, the city is made more impersonal and abstract. But there is warmth to the pieces as well. Everything feels terribly in place, even the areas where the ink smudges, and it's easy to accept one's place amongst the chaos.
Plus, I like all the little explanations I can make for the different parts. See that one red dot? That's me. And you're the line of green dots on the right -- it's not that you're fat; you're just moving a lot. Cheers.
Fantasize no more; this pipe dream, I imagine, has been made real by Julie Mehretu.
Mehretu makes large-scale abstract paintings that are just oozing with movement. The paintings' strength are in their layering: each work has a thick build up of layers of acrylic, pencil, pen, and ink. The works speak to architecture and city life, specifically referenc
ing the congestion
and noise associated with the latter. She uses the general set ups of real gridded cities and overlays them in such a way that creates new abstract cities; in this process, the constant movement of the city is slowed and flattened, its many dimensions reduced to a single, visible map.The clear sense of motion in Mehretu's work clearly elicit that of both the abstract expressionists before her and similar performance artists who make time-based art. The paintings act as a simplified compression of time while serving as documentation of her own time and movements. Two narratives are thus created through the pieces, one telling a story of flux and evanescence in a bigger, empty space and a second chronicling Mehretu's singular movements into a permanent fixture. In a sense, this makes the paintings incredibly personal.
Notions of intimacy come u
p over and over in the work, perhaps due to the nature of the artist's subject matters. In these landscapes, Mehretu creates busy cities, which are already notorious for being cold and impersonal, and puts her viewers right in the midst of their chaos. The imagery could be described as reductive and even confusing, representing specific places and people as dots or triangles or lines. In this way, the city is made more impersonal and abstract. But there is warmth to the pieces as well. Everything feels terribly in place, even the areas where the ink smudges, and it's easy to accept one's place amongst the chaos.Plus, I like all the little explanations I can make for the different parts. See that one red dot? That's me. And you're the line of green dots on the right -- it's not that you're fat; you're just moving a lot. Cheers.
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