This evening the artist will be interviewed by another curator. More words to weave through and around the work and her practice, more meaning to dig into, more to uncover and understand.
But will they talk of beauty? That’s what drew me to her work in the first place, the drop-dead gorgeousness of it all. Surface and material, color and texture, the space it demands. That’s what I need to convey: how artwork can carry complex and intellectual meaning but also be beautiful.
This all started at the Alice Wilds exhibition, “Wrapping Air In Cloth and Other Seemingly Impossible Tasks: Nirmal Raja,” on display in Milwaukee during November and December of 2019.
I was lucky to attend a gallery talk by the artist and was struck by how connected I felt to the work. Raja’s use of visual language is powerful. She is able to take feelings of dislocation and loss, global experiences of violence and vulnerability, or personal practice, and transform them into visual experiences that are not only comprehensible, but also incredibly beautiful.
It is a difficult balance to achieve, I think, this equilibrium between content and aesthetics. I’m not even sure these are the best terms to describe what I’m trying to say. The meaning that many artists strive to convey can be masked or obscured by the visual experience. For works to convey meaning, it can be helpful to invite the viewer in somehow, to make them feel–if not welcome, then at least interested. Beautiful work may not always be complex, but it can whack you over the head. That’s what I am interested in. Raja’s work smacks hard. Double-whammy.
So that’s what I’m working on now. Trying to find the words, finalize the checklist, and develop the gallery layout for a group of works that will convey some powerful meaning in glorious ways. The exhibition opens in Madison at the end of August 2024.
Ann Sinfield: Projects 