Paige Twyman
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Windy Periphery
2020
Oil on canvas
43" x 61"
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Keeper of the Soil / Icarus Falling Up
2019
Oil on canvas
48" x 72"
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Roll /Block
2019
Oil on canvas
40" x 40 "
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Lost and Found
2020
Oil on canvas
16" x 20"
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Age of Stagnation
2020
Oil on canvas
36" x 36"
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Manifest Barricade
2020
Oil on canvas
47" x 62"
Statement
In this body of work, the road block is not the obstacle but the object of interest, a condition that is physical and psychological. The history of looking at nature through the lens of human exceptionalism is reconsidered in my approach to the medium by presenting inanimate forms as animate subjects that possess their own autonomy. Commonly exploited elements such as rocks, trees, and mountainous landscapes function as weighty symbols that block the picture plane, and subsequently the viewers path, in a mode of quiet resistance to the American mythos of manifest destiny. This repositioning engages the viewer in the mythic and historical power struggle between landscape and individual.
The excavation site becomes an emblem for the age of stagnation - a point where society plateaus and possibly runs out of innovative ideas, with only history to reference. Our problem in regards to our consumption of finite natural resources is similar to the problem of contemporary painting in the context of art history- there is the inevitable anxiety of running out of novel forms of expression, leading to an endless recycling of images. The hole in the ground thus serves as a site of negotiation for our present cultural and material condition in the post-industrial landscape.