The Zantingh Project: December 2011

Well, I finished the paintings and have presented them. Below is the artist statement and explanation and a few photos.

ARTIST STATEMENT

Family Tree: for Better and Worse

In The Role of Painting in Relational Aesthetics, coordinator Suad Garayeve talks about how painting is returning to “individual creativity and artistic accountability” (Garayeva, 2011). Painters are continually looking for a new language and attempting to address social issues in contemporary ways. I have always been drawn to the work of Montreal artist Betty Goodwin (1923-2008) because of its visual language, ethereal presence, and her process, which involves addition as much as subtraction. Rich in metaphor, her artmaking is about letting go or disremembering as much as it is about contribution, causing a push and pull state. “The working process is a non-verbal battleground” (Basha, 1995). My work involves a similar type of process; I want to know myself by losing myself in this ‘non-verbal battleground’ of painting.

I often felt that way growing up, a sense of losing my individual self in this bigger whole that was my family. Staying connected to a family as large as mine is challenging in terms of developing meaningful relationships and even meeting everyone and remembering names. However, the state of being connected is always there, because of a shared genetic condition

The gene pool in my family is very strong; we all seem to look alike, bearing strong similar physical characteristics and facial features. Not only do we share our looks but we also share a genic illness that has already taken the lives of two of us. Currently my sister is in the final stages of this genetic illness called Huntington’s chorea, which

“Is an inherited disease that causes the progressive breakdown (degeneration) of nerve cells in the brain. Huntington's disease has a broad impact on a person's functional abilities and usually results in [sporadic] movement, thinking (cognitive) and [dementia] psychiatric disorders. (Mayo, 2011)

Family Tree: for better and worse began as an inquiry into the philosophical and spiritual questions I have about the loss of lives, illness and life after death, as well as the impact this has had on all of the members of my family. Evolving into a celebratory work of dedication and tribute, it has now become a collaborative platform that has brought my family together in a unique and healing way. Geographically we are very far from one another: Ontario, British Columbia, Manitoba, Quebec, USA, Taiwan, and Tanzania are the places we reside.

In light of relational aesthetics, I have considered deeply the question of exploitation because I wanted to involve everyone. I thought it might be difficult for my family to say no to my requests because of the relationship I have with them, so I approached this with a degree of humility and respect so that the dialogue with the art and the painting would be the focus.

Although I sensed it would be arduous and even painful for some, I invited my family to participate in this personal art project by asking for their contributions in the form of a word, a note, poem, photograph, colour, drawing, piece of fabric—anything expressive that would considered as a gift, or a memory. I contacted everyone by sending out emails, using Facebook and writing letters. After collecting addresses I mailed family members a letter of request and explanation of the project, pieces of drawing paper and a return stamped envelope. After completing their work they were asked to mail me their contributions. Because of envelope and mailing restrictions and because there are one hundred and twelve people involved, 5" X 7" were good dimensions to work with. To date I have received ninety contributions. Many people have emailed me an image and in every case they have had a chance to discuss this family project, which is healing in itself.

As an encouragement for people to contribute to the project I created a blog called The Zantingh Project, http://zantinghproject.blogspot.com. This has also given everyone an opportunity to comment and view each other’s contributions.

To complete the work, I converted each contribution into a digital format so that I could print them in black and white. After cutting each piece to size I adhered them to one hundred and sixteen 5" X 7" X 5/8" medium density fiberboard and let them dry. Out of the one hundred and sixteen supports, twenty-eight had a blank page to represent members who did not contribute and my parents, sister and niece who have died. Each piece also had a small Styrofoam square on the back to give the illusion that would be floating when displayed. Using wax and pigment I began the process of painting each individual piece. Colour was an important decision in the work and I basically choose two harmonious colours for every family while considering the colour choices on either side. This also correlated with my childhood memory of assigning people specific colours. A conscious decision I made was to reproduce the images in black white to serve as a symbol of life and death.

The painting process for me is one of total immersion and I lose myself in it. As I carefully added layers of melted wax and pigment, I also brutally forced it away with a heat source. Sickness strikes me as being something ominous and black; something that needs to be pushed away and erased, but the remnants always remain just like the wax. Red, black and gold thread, symbolic of being tied together or a bloodline, were also added to the melted wax and randomly placed on each painting.

I exhibited most of the pieces on the floor on a white surface to represent a feeling of being grounded. Four of the pieces, representing my parents, sister and niece hung on the wall. The work was more relational and interactive for the viewer this way because they could walk in and around the pieces. If they had hung on the wall in the linear way I had imagined, they would have been out of reach for the viewer.

The work is hung in order of family members and like a family tree or map references a genic code. Visually the work has conjured up ideas of Deluze’s rhizome and has made me want to investigate this notion further especially in relationship to the genealogical nature of trees and how they have set paths that come from one central object. In my understanding the rhizome does not have the same root structure as a tree but rather as one point connected to another. I will be exploring this as potential foundational thought for my next body of work.

Family Tree: for better and worse was a very important step for me as an artist and I have a sense of giving birth to something that has been germinating inside me for some time. I am grateful to family members for their participation and encouragement.

Bibliography

Basha, R. (1995). Diary of a human hand. Gallerie du centre des arts Saiyde Bronfman. Montreal: Gallerie du centre des arts Saiyde Bronfman.

Bishop, C. (2004, Fall). Antagonism and relational Aesthetics. October 110 .

Bourriaud, N. (1998). Relational Aesthetics. les presses du réel .

Garayeva, S. (2011). The Role of Painting in Realtional Aesthetics. Relational, of Baku . Aezrbaijan: Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

Gartler, M. (2004). The University of Chicago. Retrieved from Theories of Media: Keywords glossary: http://csmt.uchicago.edu/glossary2004/rhizome.htm