What is it about that painting? A Portrait by Kris Lamorena
Spending time in galleries for me includes a lot of staring at paintings that I’m drawn to and wondering why I like them. Less just enjoying it and more analysing why. I’m sure that’s not just me. Hence why I’m going to share some thoughts about some paintings I’ve stared at before.
I’m no art critic. In fact if I have any regrets, one might be that I didn’t do art history at university. But hey maybe I wasn’t ready. After I got told off for tracing in year eight art, art probably wasn’t destined for my academic agenda. I definitely liked standing and staring at paintings even then though. So I may not discuss the paint-strokes or use of oils, or what year it was painted and how it comments on such and such. I’m more interested in how it makes me feel. And in turn interested in if you agree.
A Portrait by Kris Lamorena
Kris Lamorena will forever be in my heart. Kris took a chance on a very inexperienced Framer and trusted me with her work. I was terrified and also fiercely intent on getting it right for her. This was one of the pieces she trusted me with. It packs a punch right?
The palette glorious. Black, white and neon pink. What’s not to love. And then a portrait to ponder.
For centuries us humans have created portraits of each other. Etchings, drawings, paintings, photographs. Snapshots in time. We seemed set on capturing a person in a particular moment. It’s a part of our story telling. We have captured these moments to look back on or to share with others, present and future. In certain cultures portraits are more than just a moment in time, they are a status symbol; a portrait of yourself or your ancestors upon a wall meaning you have made it, the larger the better, an indication of your power, your influence, who you are in the world.
But this is not a portrait of a real person. And that’s what makes Kris’s work so genius to me. Kris is challenging that human proclivity to mark a moment in time with a person and their so-called important story that is ratified with dates and locations and occupations, bloodlines and credentials. Instead in this case, as the viewer we get to make all that up for ourselves. Or perhaps not even try to create some fictional character. Perhaps that is all a distraction.
We could choose to look at the portrait as a series of shapes, a form, void of identity or heart or soul. Because that’s what we are, a bunch of cells all brought together to create this shape, this familiar pattern. When I don’t have the ability to read about this person, find out where they are from, learn their middle name, I’m free to just look at them. At the outline, the collection of shapes ordered in a particular way that makes up this thing we call the face. But being the human I am, I can’t help but try to analyse the face before me. I have a deep inclination to look at these shapes and know them. And I start with the facial expression. I’m all in now, I’m working out what this person in front of me is all about.
At first look the face reads bored, nonplussed, kind of annoyed we came. Eyes rolling maybe. Or perhaps a sadness if I look at it for long enough. A hint of embarrassment perhaps, a ‘if I stay expressionless no one will notice me’, a look of panic even. Even though I know Kris’s figures are fictional, I start to paint my own picture of what’s going on around the figure, what has led to this moment, what kind of person are they? I have the inclination to start filling in the blanks with my own narrative. And quickly realise that I don’t have a clue. When you can’t research someone, or connect the dots, or test your assumptions, it means you just have to sit with them, forego the need to know everything, accept the figure in front of you for who they are without knowing anything about them.
Maybe the struggle to do that is a reflection of the human desire to understand each other. Our basic yet ever consuming and survival depending need for connection with one another. The need to suss each other out, to understand our intentions, find out if someone is a threat, friend or foe. There’s a deep rooted longing to know more. And that’s the point. I want to know more and I think the greatest art always leads to more questions as opposed to providing all the answers.
Ellen.
This work is by Kris Lamorena. You can see more of Kris’s work here.
Taken from Kris’s website:
“Kris Lamorena is a Filipino artist based in London known for her figurative paintings. Her subjects are mostly fictional often portraying people at rest in everyday setting. She takes inspiration from her love of old photographs, cinema and her travels. She hopes to capture a sentiment, a mood. Both familiar and nuanced her work invites the viewer to their own interpretation and join the conversation about identity and representation. Producing work in small series she often changes from paper, canvas or wooden panels.”
