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| Melanie Baker "Smoke" 2019 |
Melanie Baker presents four monumental mixed media drawings that evoke a sense of charged foreboding. She depicts old white men wearing black suits, their faces obscured, cropped, or looking away. The corner of a presidential podium and neoclassical moldings are among the atmospheric architectural clues that cast these characters as political archetypes. You are the outsider looking in. Baker invites you to look closer, to inspect a fold of fabric, a grey hair tucked behind an ear, or ominous billowing clouds of smoke which evoke the proverbial ‘back-room’.
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| Melanie Baker "Mouthpiece" 2018
“Assembly of Elders” depicts a large red pleated curtain, the only splash of color in the otherwise monochromatic show. The red drapes behind the heads of three closely huddled men, you cannot see or hear what they are discussing, but whatever it is, it’s not meant for you. In the background of the image, the window dividers form what resembles a tall white cross against a pitch black sky.
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| Melanie Baker "Assembly of Elders" 2019 |
In “The Optimates”, Baker references a conservative anti-immigrant political group from ancient Rome. Translated from Latin: “The Best Ones”, this movement rivaled the liberal ‘people's’ party The Populares (Latin: "favoring the people"). The show's title is an historic nod to the current American presidents' clannish and chillingly parallel polemical persuasion. Baker’s work interrogates our fraught political moment through indirect perspectives on collusion, tribalism, male privilege, and white supremacy. Her focused scenes begin to erode the psychic power of the invisible hand that has an outsized impact on our everyday lives.
I agree with your interpretation of these drawings. They all demonstrate a sense of tension yet unattainable. The feeling of powerlessness, and the idea of knowing your daily life is hugely impacted by politicians’ decision making is frustrating. The use of monochrome in the first two drawings and strong color contrast in Assembly of Elders further render the depressed and hopeless atmosphere. I’ve also noticed that all the figures shown in these drawings are white male. Is it possible that the author, Melanie Baker, hints about white supremacy? Or is it just a coincidence?
ReplyDeleteOut of this collection, I find the piece “Smoke” that you referenced to be the most visually and conceptually interesting. In the whole of her collection, this piece is intriguing due to its scale. As you state in your review, many of her pieces center around centering in around a small detail. This piece exists in defiance of that. As the curator states about this drawing, she obviously finds herself limited by size of medium to express the full magnitude of her concept. Although it is not quite stated what this piece is referencing, it’s chilling to see it nonetheless.
ReplyDeleteWhilst I agree with your initial interpretation of these pieces I can't help but question this show... We exist in a time that is overwhelmingly marred by political polarization and gridlock, as American society continues to struggle with it’s changing demography and the forever lingering consequences of it’s racist foundation. Clearly our political environment is both tumultuous and extremely complex- something that I feel Melanie Baker’s unimaginative and over-literal depictions of politicians fail to capture. While, yes - these pieces are technically tight and cropped to suggest anonymity / the silencing of power- the surface level content of these images falls short and severely lacks nuance. White men in power are nothing new. What further perspective is Melanie Baker really able to offer?
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