Line Tracing, Shadow Chasing

When an artist curates, they are likely looking for comfort. Like a canine, call me Max, I am marking my territory to ease my anxiety of a changing and unfamiliar turf.

The artists, Mary Dyja, Leila Fatemi, Nicole Ji Soo Kim, Sukaina Kubba, Metha Oz, take to a mender’s path, and trace with pencil, thread, yarn, plastic, and hair, the hurt until anxiety is reduced and the pain dulled. Their callous drawings build up layer by layer to protect wounds from touching a dirty outside. An outside that accepts the widening socio-economic gap, the normalization of state violence (even in democratic countries!), and the dozen other dirty headlines at our doorsteps.

Drawing especially becomes relevant, as I notice the growing obsession with material goods, as uncertainty sets into our communities; It feels like material goods are the only things that can be possessed and provide calm with certainty. Drawing proves that using small amounts of material at a time, built up over a period of time can satisfy our need to occupy a life on earth. We don’t need carnal, carnival sized tricks, or precious metals to impress our lives. Drawing reminds me to stop ‘improving’ my home, ‘upgrading’ my pillow or, buying the ‘best’ shoes. Drawing instead values, form, line, shape, texture, perspective, and especially the familiarization and appreciation of our alien and anxious world. Ooohhh… I see, and I respond, and so I feel time pass now.

The canine strategically pisses in tight corners and off the beaten path, out of human reach to protect its pheromone-ic messages. The plumb and its tight corners and hard to reach location is a perfect place for chemical messages and pheromone-ic responses. Max likes to trace lines and chase shadows.