Narrative?
Wanda
Lock's work is ethereal yet grounded, playful and lively but contained. The
work is whimsical with associations to the joy of pure abstraction but there
is an underlying reference. It is a feminism that is inescapable and Lock
seals the hints of a maternal perspective within a determined, firm
association with the realm of children when she rules half of her page as if
it was a school book and writes in the cursive hand of a child. The work is
associative and she has forced the association with this addition of wobbly
writing. The text, with the exaggerated curves of a nascent scribe, reveal
the wonder of the act of writing while at the same time demonstrating the
task of having to communicate with such a laborious method. Perhaps that is
why the message is more evocative than precise. The voice is difficult to
pin down. Is it a child who is telling us something or is it an adult
clothing more sophisticated emotions?
Interpreting the visuals is influenced by the text and with the writing
being so large, it is impossible to look at the work without reading it.
When “running up hill to the green green grass” is the written statement and
there is a happily colored blue sky and four attempts at humanization at the
bottom of what could be a hill; when there's a balloon floating and a bouncy
story book expectancy - it's an abrupt detour to read the title Searching
for Casa Nova and then realize that this is an adult who is putting out the
messages.
The visuals cannot be interpreted as truly naïve for they rise above the in
adequate abilities of a child who is trying to depict (striving to make
drawings that 'look like . . .'). The sunny work enters the intellectually
complex coding of pure abstraction. More 'Cy Twombly' than innocent, Wanda
Lock's work challenges while enhancing - similar to the profound dynamics
between the upkeep and the blessings of raising children.
Copyright © 2006, Headbones Gallery, The Drawers
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