a manner referencing Goya’s Third of May. Is the figure, through its acknowledgement of the viewer, simply reaching out as if in celebration, or out of frustration with the act of navigating such a busy social setting in an age of disconnect? The subtleties in representations of the figure as they relate to social disconnect are common throughout works in Voluntarily Indirect. In Ivy-Jade Edward’s A Quadruple “Nice” and Film Still: The Bathers, the figures in the pictures are depicted in incredibly intimate situations, yet none of them are in discernible communication with one another. The contrast between intimacy and alienation between the figures creates an overall mood of unease within these pictures, a tension and charge that reflects the current social climate. For Donna Woodley’s Ushika the Marketing Director, this contrast between intimacy and alienation is present in the removal of the figure’s identity through the use of underwear to cover the eyes. This act of covering is both playful and disturbing, creating a tension in the work not only compositionally through the stretching of the fabric, but also through a conceptual tension by denying the viewer access to the identity of the figure.
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VO LU N TA R I LY I N D I R EC T
This concept of indirectness can be implemented in other ways than placement of the figures. Abstraction can also be afforded as a means of establishing multiplicity of content and indirectness of message. For Carl Moore, the reduction of forms to flat shapes and solid, bold color lends an openness to his paintings that allow them to occupy a space of both specificity as well as ambiguity. In The Murder of Eric Garner, Moore depicts the death of Eric Garner at the hands of an NYPD police officer that occurred in July 2014. While the painting is a direct reference to images that were taken during the incident, Moore’s sensibilities of design and color distill the image into a quasi-logo. The proliferation of logos and marketingbased content serves as a commentary on the way in which media depicts police brutality, events that happen all too often in a society obsessed with mass-producing violence that it has deemed newsworthy. Abstraction also lends itself to the creation of images that seek to encompass the complex energy and turmoil that are intrinsic to the current socio-political climate. Jason Stout’s current series of fight clouds with protruding feet and hands filled with weapons and other objects of significance depict the energy and chaos of events that the contemporary viewer is inundated with daily. These images do not settle into one specific message, and grapple with multiple issues of content through iconography directly related to politics and Southern culture. The result of not settling on one event places Stout in the role one could call “painter as weatherman” in the sense