Liz Medina - Descending Power

Liz Medina

Mankind’s unwavering desire to understand his surroundings by exerting control over it is visually demonstrated through the use of protractors, compasses, rulers, and a No. 2 mechanical pencil. The lust to know can force one to ignore what is obvious: the ready-made, square compositional frame is left unexplored and is superseded by a centered circle. Within the constraints of the circle I am now free to allow unconscious thought and expression to monochromatically manifest--with a ruler affixed in my hand to correct any human error. Rules are broken occasionally; organic forms make their appearance and sometimes forms push themselves outside of their arbitrary border. The multiple sources of light create a sense of unease because they stand in conflict with the pretense of a logical world, which is implied with the heavy-use of geometric shapes. The use of geometrical shapes, coherent spacial relationships, and light and shadow imply a world of recognizable, knowable systems; in these drawings that world collides with other systems, more chaotic and anarchic and less relatable or discernible.  This collision of systems is represented by forms breaking and crumbling, shadows disobeying the direction of their sources of light, and most profoundly, by a disorienting sense of falling. Only when my self-created system is allowed to fall--by playing with the rules--am I liberated to question, and therefore understand, the forms before me. The drawings initiate a state of yearning to know the unknown; submitting the viewer, along with myself, to epistemological analyzation.