Exploring the tensions and revealing the relationships between two opposing forces is the underlying motivation in the development of Erica Harney’s latest work. Delving in the unknown, the locus of obscured conflicts, provides Harney a method for exploring the tension inherent in the dualism of our psyches and structures. For her, this concept of the unknown reflects the disconnect between many elements in modern society, which maintain a quality of un-joinable puzzle pieces – Harney tries to bring these disparate ideas and issues together with her constructed connections.
Drawing on the Rorschach ink-blot technique, Harney builds upon this concept with oils and canvas. By folding the canvas, pushing the paints together and then pulling them apart, she reveals forms that illustrate the relationships of diametrical opposition. This multiple-fold technique and obscuring creates, instead of the flat mirror figures of a Rosharch fold, a complex language of changes and fissures on the canvas.
Two of the pieces are joined by trompe-l’oeil band-aids, bringing our focus to the space between the canvases. It is in this area of transition where her work could go deeper to delve into the psychological edges and tensions she discusses so fluently when elaborating on her motivation. This idea of edges and thresholds is echoed in the lower canvas, where a receding geometric figure suggests both an entryway and a void.
The elements of a fissure can be seen more subtly in the third piece with its central element of a spinning, falling turkey. While this piece does not communicate her explorations as clearly as the two connected canvases, the dynamic quality of motion has the bird being pulled downward into the unknown. The structural fissure brings out the line between the stable and fluid, the tension between the visible and what is just beyond in the void.
The intriguing elements and techniques Harney is developing entice the viewer’s interest in what this artist’s future will hold –providing a glimpse at what she can do with a further unfolding of the layers of opposition at the surface of this work. The nascent exploration of this concept of the unknown, growing from the development of her multi-folding technique, provides room for both technical and artistic intensification of this current theme. The ability to look with courage into the difficult places in our collective psyche, along with her passion and painterly skill give Harney a unique lens with which to interpret the world.
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