Renee Lai: A Study of Fences
My work and research focuses on the idea of barriers, both as an explicit subject and also more broadly as the psychological and physical manifestation of what it means to be separated. I am interested in the physical structures that determine where bodies are or are not permitted to go, as well as the more socially constructed ones that authorize these spaces into being. Barriers work as a structure that allows me to ask abstract questions about space but also as a material and visual exploration of line, structure, and repetition. My barriers are soft in touch but relentless in the repetition of lines that create the space, translucent in color, and rather light in terms of density of marks. The natural color of the support is left to show through, emphasizing the flat nature of the canvas but also suggesting an ease of passing through. I think of barriers as a place where two things meet, where my calligraphic line, absorbed from growing up surrounded by reproduced Chinese paintings, combine with a modernist minimalistic impulse. The resulting paintings situate themselves between two historically opposing traditions.
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My work and research focuses on the idea of barriers, both as an explicit subject and also more broadly as the psychological and physical manifestation of what it means to be separated. I am interested in the physical structures that determine where bodies are or are not permitted to go, as well as the more socially constructed ones that authorize these spaces into being. Barriers work as a structure that allows me to ask abstract questions about space but also as a material and visual exploration of line, structure, and repetition. My barriers are soft in touch but relentless in the repetition of lines that create the space, translucent in color, and rather light in terms of density of marks. The natural color of the support is left to show through, emphasizing the flat nature of the canvas but also suggesting an ease of passing through. I think of barriers as a place where two things meet, where my calligraphic line, absorbed from growing up surrounded by reproduced Chinese paintings, combine with a modernist minimalistic impulse. The resulting paintings situate themselves between two historically opposing traditions.
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