Xyl Lasersohn – Gatehouse

Description

My paintings provide no easy answers. As a painting progresses I continuously change the composition, colors, and shapes building up opaque layers of paint. The paintings start to fall into an elusive space where common objects slowly shift into abstraction, figures meld with the environment around them, and the perspective contradicts itself. The objects are presented on a landscape stage with a bright light casting a stark shadow. There is little to imply a world beyond; entire scenes feel like constructed indoor spaces. The scale of the work allows for a personification of the objects; they fulfill the compositional role of figure within the ground. Yet, when these objects are placed within this landscape, there is a break upon the field, an equivocation that occurs, where each element is at equal risk of division or bisection. There is an inherent violence baked into the work, that is in no ways direct, but rather that emerges slowly from extended viewing. As if one thing can hold multiple, yet can never be anchored within one interpretation.