Apple in the Dark

—Toniann Fernandez

Apple in the Dark explores a notion of the body as boundless proliferation of a self-defined form, focusing on artists who propose an alternative modality for figuration, explore the abstract qualities of the figure, or otherwise distort, exaggerate or interrupt the figure to tell a non-objective truth. Here, “emotional figuration” or diffuse evocation of form emphasizes an intuitive sense of the body over the symbolic reality of the figure. A brush stroke becomes a tangle of hair that brings the neck into focus. The body’s shadow is the body. In this less objective approach, the line between subject and environment is blurred. The body hides in plain sight, integral to the environment, and the environment becomes the interior space that is a thin container for the miasma of thoughts and feelings that give rise to the self.