Bubble Rap Statement
I completed this new series of paintings in the last few months. They follow a number of works I painted for another series entitled, America in the Shadow of Nine-Eleven. I destroyed most of the Nine-Eleven pieces so I could reconstruct them, piece-by-piece, abstractly, in these Bubble Rap works. I wanted to rearrange contextual meanings to be less “preachy,” and more open to interpretation by the viewer - much like early twentieth century Dada works. Even though many Dada artists’ responses to the horrors of World War I, and the excesses of the European aristocracy may have appeared nonsensical they were anything but that. The Bubble Rap pieces are my intuitive responses to contemporary issues without tackling them head-on. I tried not to “think” so much, and rather “responded” to materials more in these works. I developed a visual vocabulary of bubble wrap grids, collages, stars, textured surfaces, wood glue, colors, references to natural light, and crows; and they are all metaphorical. I do not care to “explain” these works because that is impossible. I can only go into the studio and paint, construct, and experiment until something takes shape. My biggest artistic influence is the American artist, Robert Rauschenberg, and I think Rap and Hip-Hop music both owe him a debt. I refer most specifically to his combine paintings of the 1950’s. He led the way in expressing a “jumbled-up” urban America, the increasing speed of information dissemination, and the role of the media in the future of mankind. Rauschenberg says it is all right to express without understanding or using traditional media. I agree, and I have taken plastic bubble wrap out if its expected function, and included it with that which it is intended to protect – a painting – and, as a result, both have become one in an unanticipated evolutionary step.
Mark Tobin Moore
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