It Caught My Eye
I recently saw an exhibition of British artist Mark Fairnington's work at a gallery here in London. HIs exhibition, entitled "The Raft" featured life-like paintings of taxidermy, specifically birds and giraffes. I loved the BIRDS, of course. They brought attention to the beautiful colors and various species that we find in bird life. I think he is also saying something about the desire to collect things in our present day culture. In one of his pieces, giraffe heads crowd a shelf in an unknown room of a zoo, (perhaps?) I also liked the round pieces he painted of animals' eyes. The technique he used makes it look very realistic, while the two dimensional surface (and the fact that it is just a close-up of one eye) reminds you that it is a painting. I loved looking closely at these "eyes" for you can even see the reflection in them. I would never get that close to say, a living tigers' eye. It made me feel I was experiencing something beyond what I could experience in this life. I liked that.
If you would like to see a further description of his work, the gallery has a post on Mark Fairnington:
http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/blogon/2006/09/mark_fairnington_at_fred_londo_1.php
posted by Amber Lee at 9:28 AM
2 Comments:
Amber Lee!! I was checking out Kelli's blog and saw your little name on there!! I like the "eye" pictures also! Pretty cool!
I miss you so much!! Love and prayers!
I liked this display as well. I thought it was interesting that if one saw the stuffed birds in real life, one would automatically know that they were dead. The paradox here is that Mark, by rendering them in 2D and in such a realistic way, actually GAVE them more life... even though they weren't the real deal. Funny how painting often creates such illusions.
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