Foil Paintings
1992-Present
Works that use holographic foils, or Foil Paintings, first began as a parallel investigation to the Covered Site paintings in the years after my participation in Documenta IX (1992). While the Covered Sites are "flattened" in that they are meant to be visually scanned from side to side, the foil paintings were meant to be "entered" by the viewers gaze. The illusion of depth-in-field is created by cheap, holographic foils that when layered under fabrics (earlier), or simply utilized on their own (more recently), provide the spectator with an curiously deep visual space at odds with the physically flat surface before them. By refusing to use more traditional means of classical perspective to achieve this "window effect" the viewer is in the end actually "gazing into" a combination of medical dyes, cosmetics, and other social fluids arrayed on a paper thin substrata of foil. The result is a balance between the sublime and the commercial, between the desire for beauty and light, and the harsh reality of the "paintings" actual composition.
The cracked and re-applied surface layered over this foil produces a
stained glass effect that reinforces the sense that while you are actually
looking at the work, you also looking through to another space beyond.
Early Foil Works
Untitled: (Koln # 7)
Fluids and fabric over foil on canvas
60" x 48"
1994
Untitled: (Koln # 13)
Fluids and fabric over foil on canvas
60" x 48"
1994
1992-Present
Works that use holographic foils, or Foil Paintings, first began as a parallel investigation to the Covered Site paintings in the years after my participation in Documenta IX (1992). While the Covered Sites are "flattened" in that they are meant to be visually scanned from side to side, the foil paintings were meant to be "entered" by the viewers gaze. The illusion of depth-in-field is created by cheap, holographic foils that when layered under fabrics (earlier), or simply utilized on their own (more recently), provide the spectator with an curiously deep visual space at odds with the physically flat surface before them. By refusing to use more traditional means of classical perspective to achieve this "window effect" the viewer is in the end actually "gazing into" a combination of medical dyes, cosmetics, and other social fluids arrayed on a paper thin substrata of foil. The result is a balance between the sublime and the commercial, between the desire for beauty and light, and the harsh reality of the "paintings" actual composition.
The cracked and re-applied surface layered over this foil produces a
stained glass effect that reinforces the sense that while you are actually
looking at the work, you also looking through to another space beyond.
Detail #2
Untitled: (12 Sections)
Fluids and foil on panel
96" x 72"
2005
Untitled: (12 Sections)
Fluids and foil on panel
96" x 72"
2005
Early Foil Works
Untitled: (Koln # 5)
Fluids and fabric over foil on canvas
96" x 72"
1994
Fluids and fabric over foil on canvas
96" x 72"
1994
Untitled: (Koln # 7)
Fluids and fabric over foil on canvas
60" x 48"
1994
Untitled: (Koln # 13)
Fluids and fabric over foil on canvas
60" x 48"
1994
Untitled: (LA #7)
Fluids and fabric over foil on canvas
60" x 48"
1997
Fluids and fabric over foil on canvas
60" x 48"
1997
Untitled (Chartres) installation view
Pacific Design Center
Los Angeles, California
2009
Courtesy of Christopher Grimes Gallery
Untitled (Chartres) installation view
Pacific Design Center
Los Angeles, California
2009
Courtesy of Christopher Grimes Gallery
Detail #1 Untitled (Edith)
Fluids and foil over panel
80" x 36"
2006
Fluids and foil over panel
80" x 36"
2006
Click on image to enlarge
Detail #2 Untitled (Edith)
Fluids and foil over panel
80" x 36"
2006
Untitled: (12 x 144 vertical)
Fluids and foil over panel
144" x 72"
2007
Fluids and foil over panel
144" x 72"
2007
Click on image to enlarge