PROJECT

Indomitable structures

Portraits of five architectural landmarks in Dallas, Texas.

The 17th-century pope Innocent X is fabled to have remarked (in barbed appreciation), “Troppo vero!” upon first viewing Velazquez’s masterful rendition of the pontiff. The Italian expression, understood in that context to have meant “too real,” or, better yet, “too truthful,” speaks aptly of portraiture’s capacity to convey more than the immediate appearance of its subject. In that vein, "Indomitable Structures” presents a series of five portraits searching for a kind of truth best brought into focus through the lens of projection and interpretation.

Each artwork explores an eminent building along the Historic Downtown Dallas skyline, however, their iconic silhouettes are several times transformed in service of novel, analytically oriented depictions. The diptych motif of the series directly refers to Hermann Rorschach’s inkblot test as well as the dual hemispheres of the cerebrum, framing the subject, artwork, and viewing experience together as a cognitive continuum.

The tangible is represented on the left side of the compositions by totemic avatars of the subject’s exterior architecture; these drawings are rendered to emulate three-dimensional embossings, advancing their symbolism of the tactile, material dimension. The right side of the compositions describes ostensibly unseen properties of the subjects and is a loose adaptation of the scholar Timothy Morton’s concept of the hyperobject. These complementing forms visualize the subjects' amorphous or purely conceptual qualities, like the impression a building carves within airflow, for example, or the shape of a century of retail activity.

The series’ illusory and fantastical imagery ultimately invites reflection on how perceptions may come to inhabit reality. When an inkblot is assigned meaning, does the interpretation complete the blot? If so, how should we regard the influence of our projections on the rest of the corporeal world, and what does a portrait—and the act of viewing the portrait—possibly impose on its subject?

1st Edition, 1/4

62 x 78 inches / 157.5 x 198 cm

Private commission.

MEDIUM Archival Pigment Prints on hand deckled cotton paper

design & production