Natalie- Project 2 Statement

Natalie Frisinger

Lia Halloran

Advanced Painting

Project 2: Image Interface

My image interface piece is one, which deals predominantly with the dialogue between the production of photography and painting. As such, the piece addresses painting’s ability to transform the physicality of a photograph.

Additionally, this project is an exploration, which furthers my previous examination of the expression of divine feminine energy. Fueled by the lack of depiction of spirituality, self-exploration as well as esoteric depictions of subjective spirituality through a feminine auteur in the monumental first years of the modernist era, my piece attempts to acknowledge this. Thus, my diptych attempts to play with interface on multiple levels. Beginning with the depiction of transformation from a light-created image to one, which attempts to create light (painting), and ending with the conversation between acknowledging a lack of female representation in the endeavor to express one’s spiritual perspectives, as well as attempting to depict my own spirituality.

To further the created tension between image and painting, I attempted to transform the figure from her seemingly vulnerable state depicted in the image, to one, which embodies the physical act of ascending. Though photograph and painting present the viewer with the exact same image, the removal of the hardwood floor in the photograph as well as the accenting of the foot placement to appear as though it is coming out of the canvas (creating a greater sense of depth), emphasizes the depth of the created space in a way that functions to transform an otherwise undefined space.

Heavily influenced by Bill Viola’s video art pieces, which feature a strong sense of oppositional forces in creating a tension as well as a sublime image, my painting attempts to replicate some of these tactile effects. Particularly, in Viola’s piece entitled “Tristan’s Ascension”, viewers are confronted with the image of a man rising from a surface he was previously laying upon as water pours down onto his body. A spectacular image is created, as one is struck by the struggle between the force of the large body of water pouring down and the man, seemingly weightless as he ascends. I therefore attempted to make optimal use of negative space in my paintings, leaving spaces in limbs and feet so that the viewer is at once engulfed in the experience of being pushed away from the painting (as the figure is seemingly stepping out or onto the viewer) as well as being pulled through the environment in which the figure is immersed.