Nicole Duennebier exhibited in the New Britain Museum of American Art in 2010. she is an artist whose paintings are not what they first seem, on first look they are beautifully detailed subjects emerging from a very black background. They remind me of the Dutch Masters' bowls of fruit and flowers with bright details of colour, the glint on a vase or reflection in glass, all set against a velvety black backdrop. This contrast draws your eyes to the delicately painted…rotting organisms which drip fluids!
Duennebier also painted a series ‘Cordycepssinesis’ (2007) based on the fungi Cordyceps which attacks insects, then feeds and grows on the corpse, engulfing it. The image below shows a dead caterpillar with the frilly white fungus blooming from it like an Elizabethan lace ruff.
Duennebier Cordycepssinesis(2007)
Duennebier describes how she sees the subjects in her work ‘...as fruiting bodies, malignant growths that take on a lavish formation’ she goes on to say that they have an ‘...indication of ‘festering’ in the form of sodden underbellies and noxious fumes that rise into the air’(NBMAA, 2010) This is a form of abject representation, but presented in a beautiful, intricate way. If you could smell as well as see the painting it would add to the sensual experience.
Her work has the seduction that draws the
viewer in, followed by the jolt of repulsion that I am seeking to create in my
work.
http://nbmaa.wordpress.com/2010/03/19/nicole-duennebier-beautifully-repulsive/
Inspired by this work, I took some images of mould and fungi growing on tree stumps in the woods.
The forms and colours are beautiful and remind me of encrusted jewels.
I then manipulated sections of the images to produce some 'multicomposites'.
Unfortunately, unlike Duennebier I was unable to add the dripping oozing liquids that create a sense of the grotesque, decomposing substances. I do not think that many people find tree mould nasty enough to be seen as 'Abject' There is a nice 'wetness to the image above, but the composition makes it look like embroidery or jewelled embellishment or delicate carving. I like these images but they are not achieving my aim of creating something that draws you in with its seductive initial appearance, then repels you when you see the subject matter.
Coles Mould IV (2014)
This image is more successful at creating a sense of unease, with the dark hole in the centre and the feeling of being drawn into it. The longer you study the image, shapes and patterns emerge and your eye is drawn down lines of symmetry. (I had to reduce Mould IV to a very small file in order to import it, so the quality is not as good as the original) But if the viewer realises that the subject matter is mould, I still don't think there would be a frisson of shock or disgust...
Inspired by this work, I took some images of mould and fungi growing on tree stumps in the woods.
The forms and colours are beautiful and remind me of encrusted jewels.
I then manipulated sections of the images to produce some 'multicomposites'.
Coles Mould I (2014)
Unfortunately, unlike Duennebier I was unable to add the dripping oozing liquids that create a sense of the grotesque, decomposing substances. I do not think that many people find tree mould nasty enough to be seen as 'Abject' There is a nice 'wetness to the image above, but the composition makes it look like embroidery or jewelled embellishment or delicate carving. I like these images but they are not achieving my aim of creating something that draws you in with its seductive initial appearance, then repels you when you see the subject matter.
Coles Mould IV (2014)
This image is more successful at creating a sense of unease, with the dark hole in the centre and the feeling of being drawn into it. The longer you study the image, shapes and patterns emerge and your eye is drawn down lines of symmetry. (I had to reduce Mould IV to a very small file in order to import it, so the quality is not as good as the original) But if the viewer realises that the subject matter is mould, I still don't think there would be a frisson of shock or disgust...
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