Last night, Claire Brandt's Boundaries opened at The Factory on Capitol Hill. The show—which will be up for a month—features figurative work centered on the human form. At the opening, Brandt encouraged viewers to become a part of this process with "States of Being Traced," an interactive artwork where she traced the outline of visitors onto a giant piece of paper. The result was an abstracted, layered work that reproduced the space's time and movement.
While the entire show is interesting, the piece I absorbed the most was "Proto (triptych)," nestled in the corner of the gallery.
I love the use of icky yellows and greens in her configuration of the model's flesh. It never looks out of place, especially when contrasted with the pinky peaches and gray-blues that even out their skin tone. There's something a bit unwieldy about that mixture of colors. It reminds me of the prolific painter Alice Neel and her goopy, colorful, evocative portraits of people in her life.
While the figure isn't actually, literally in motion, you get a sense that they're lolling around on the ground, naked. In an image of the piece posted on The Factory's Instagram, you'll see that the triptych is in a different order.
It still makes narrative sense. There's an undercurrent of motion and repetition to the paintings, even though it hangs static in the show. And how about that horse? What's it doing there? WHERE'S ITS HIND LEGS? So many questions.
You'll have a chance to see the works again at an "interdisciplinary reading" on Nov. 21 from 7-10 p.m. featuring poets Natalie Martinez and Paul Hlava Ceballos and prose writers Calvin Gimpelevich and Jessica Mooney. Boundaries will be up for another month and is viewable by appointment.
