Mirth is currently exhibiting paintings by Marfa-based artist, Biff Bolen. Since meeting Bolen, I have become fond of his process and work--most recently, one obnoxiously large canvas, covered in oil and silicon entitled, Memory/Mammory, 2013. Measuring eighty-four by seventy-two inches, Memory/Mammory demands attention if not affection and perhaps sheer amusement.
An unwieldy, streaky, gestural green blob--dripping with painterly excrement--sits on top of and behind a calming gray-white background. The green blob is adorned with two asymmetrical spheres for eyes that float above a watermelon mouth, all colored black. In between, two relatively small diagonal strokes form a nose. Initially, the awkward shape of the green blob, its expression and visceral matter evoke fear and disgust from the viewer. The ominous character of the painting is further haunted but strangely lightened by a gooey, bulbous, translucent silicon smiley face--playfully placed atop the green blob. Meanwhile, a third figure extends from the top right corner of the green blob to join the viewer in glaring at the juxtaposition of a gloomy green blob championed by a smile.
Bolen explicates that he utilizes layers of painted imagery to better understand the shift wireless search engines have forced on today's culture. He inquires,"...are we becoming more comfortable translating image into words or are we loosing the ability to interpret and connect with imagery? What does the search engine have in common with the brain? is it possible for me to be completely random?" Bolen believes that "as the Internet pushes more towards [a] Freudian theory of humanity, the artist should push back against it, looking further for the illogical, and therefore the real humanity."
As technology advances towards a 'human' logarithm, the computer and the brain may inform one another or perhaps, the artist in all of us will breach the connective membrane as Bolen has wih Memory/Mammory--an image that stains the memory and demonstrates humanity's supreme ability to reconcile complementary opposites.
-Jessica for Mirth
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