Works, 2008 « Recent Works « Mark de Lange Mallari – New Directions in Asian Contemporary Art

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<b>“Resonance”</b><p>Acrylic Resin and Mixed Materials on Canvas and Panel,</p><p>39” x 24”, 2008 </p><p><i>Sometimes sounds guide me through the process of forming an image in my mind. In this case I imagined two powerful sound sources interacting with each other, cancelling in some places, reinforcing in others. The figure holds a symbolic echo reflector. It was also interesting to me, as I have done in other works, to juxtapose pure geometry and abstraction with a figurative representation, and it is interesting to get to straddle both worlds.</i></p>

<b>“Womb of My Illusions”</b><p>Acrylic Resin and Mixed Materials on Canvas and Panel,</p><p>39” x 24”, 2008 </p><p><i>This work is one of a sub-series in which I experimented with putting bold, bright geometric shapes and patterns together with the soft flesh of the human figure, in a way being the antithesis of the work of Victor Vasarely. I also wanted to say something about how we often by necessity, sugar-coat our situation in life, and live in a bubble of false security and feel-goodness and do not recognize how exposed and vulnerable we really are. Me, I like my bubble just fine!</i></p>

<b>“The Persistence of Yellow Airplanes”</b><p>Acrylic Resin and Mixed Materials on Canvas and Panel,</p><p>39” x 24”, 2008 </p><p><i>Not all my works are somber or serious, sometimes I just want to be flippant and not put in too much meaning into everything. I also love aircraft and this is probably one of the few times I will get to use an aviation theme in a work. I also don’t often incorporate outright movement in my works, preferring a stillness and quietude. Nothing could be more different from that than a hoard of pesky airplanes buzzing around a befuddled girl’s head for no apparent reason.</i></p>

<b>“Day Eleven”</b><p>Acrylic Resin and Mixed Materials on Canvas and Panel,</p><p>28” x 44”, 2008 </p><p><i>This is another nonsensical work and I must have watched too many science fiction movies as a child. It’s scary in a comical way, or is it the other way around? I imagined an inexplicable series of events happening while the world watches in consternation, culminating in the arrival of a fleet of alien spheres on an imaginary Asian city, probably to do some shopping.</i></p>

<b>“Solipsism”</b><p>Acrylic Resin and Mixed Materials on Canvas and Panel,</p><p>39” x 24”, 2008 </p><p><i>“Solipsism” refers to a condition of self-absorption and perhaps this is a comment on the observation that technology is a tremendous enabler but can also disconnect us from those around us. I also found it interesting to employ echoes of classical art to create a work that on first glance looks like it ought to be a classical painting, but reveals itself to be a work composed of modern contradictions.</i></p>

<b>“Nobody’s Business but My Own”</b><p>Acrylic Resin and Mixed Materials on Canvas and Panel,</p><p>24” x 33”, 2008 </p><p><i>Another work whose purpose was to play around with non-related visual elements, yet somehow have them all co-exist in one combined image. There is the field of brightly colored squares, symbols and shapes popping in and out of existence in the left side, the florals swirling about in a background hinting of decay, the pristine loop of silver hovering over the canvas oblivious of physical law. And there is the kid with the funky, borrowed Wayfarers reflecting a cloudscape that really shouldn’t be there. I like the kid’s so-what, devil-may-care attitude and it seems to me that he is just barely maintaining his pose and restraining himself from bursting out in laughter. An architectural diagram of sun-shadow interaction forms a subtle halo around his head, but a pair of red, plastic horns wouldn’t look out of place either.</i></p>