PROTECT N’ SERVE
AUGUST 2 - 30, 2024 | MAIN GALLERY
FIGWÜRM
Through experimentation with figuration, the artist Figwürm utilizes painting and installation to depict the role of order and liberation in everyday life — specifically, through the lens of a self in society.
This exhibition features a selection of tied works that reinterpret the colloquial phrase Protect and Serve, within the context of modern society.. and its relationship to existence as a whole. Depending on ideology and/or personal experience this phrase carries a range of connotations, which (in the artist’s opinion) allows the phrase to serve as a multi-representational vehicle by which the dynamic and complex relationship between order and freedom, chaos and structure, order and free will, can be explored.
From familial structures to mathematical proofs, our entire existence is defined and then UNDERSTOOD through the tension of an unknown chaos and an observable, fixed, reality. For example, the artist uses related imagery to evaluate the general mechanism of institutional control and its role in constructing (controlling) reality. But also, Figwürm employs the manipulation of shape, color, and light to signify the effects of optical functions on perception, (our salient abilities “ie, physical limitations”), which are examples of order & the means by which we survive in a physical state; there are ways in which we cannot abstain from certain types of obeying. There are layers to authority, security, and control; it is the goal of the artist to challenge the viewer's personal perception and explore the true nature of these concepts.
In this exhibition, each representative mode exists apart from and in tandem with one another, depicting the multi-existent experience of perception and being. Coincidentally, Figwürm employs cubist techniques and abstract portraiture to mimic reality through a metaphysical and socially-critical lens. By joining fragmented perspectives of singular forms into a unified body or scene, his artwork visualizes the mutli-layered existence of all things; and in this case: the tension that exists between structure/order and the innate desire for individuality/expression/freedom. Through Cubisms multifaceted perspective, the pieces are able to exist in a superposition of equally valid realities; displaying the intersecting viewpoints/biases/experiences that we share as a collective conscious. Concurrently, figuration is important to the artist because it /provides an exploratory vessel for which the viewer can instinctively connect, creating common ground from which investigation can occur.
Following the well documented tradition of “prophecy” in black art, Figwurm’s work relies on honing intuition, their work becoming an almost prophetic glimpse into the coalescing dimensions of truth and being.. or other non physical realms. Encouraging this spirit of intuition, the artist created a painting directly on all surfaces of the gallery walls, the wall becoming another moment of expansiveness, collapsing expectations, and symbolizing all that contributes to our often simplified or constrained explanations of reality. In Protect N’ Serve, Figwürm examines the dueling roles of order and liberation, and offers clues to how they make us who we are.
Figwürm
My work tends to drift towards a meditation on self. Abstracted portraits dominate as the main subject in most compositions, however these "subjects" are loosely bound by interconnected structures, within and throughout; allowing for a composite whole and individual selves to coalesce.
In my view, reality is constructed from independent, conscious, perceptions of a shared experience. the bedrock of which lies an absolute truth, never fully revealed.
Instead our limitations (ie: observation, senses) construct an abstract guiding form of self and selves to perceive. to help navigate meaningfully. my work struggles with these questions of form, truth, and purpose; I wish for each piece to encapsulate the divine, creative process of perception and experience. to extend agency through the viewer, just as the individual claims agency of their own experience through conscious choice & (conjoined) observation.
My work is intrinsically tied to the black experience, and the exploration of black agency. With this exhibit I wish to demonstrate the depth of our shared experience and highlight the breadth of power (force) held between collective individuals, as they interpret, define, & create (or uncover) the basis of a singular truth. Which I believe is done every day. - Figwürm
