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(1) "Buddha on Moneybags", oil on canvas, 33 x 40", 1995.
(2) "Buddha on Moneybags", oil on canvas, 33 x 40", 1995.
(3) "Buddha on Moneybags", oil on canvas, 33 x 40", 1995.
(4) "Buddha on Moneybags", oil on canvas, 33 x 40", 1995.
by Ray Zone
(Random Gallery, Pasadena) With an exhibit of twenty-one "prayer Rug" paintings all titled Buddha
on Moneybags, Stephen Seemayer explores the contradictory ideas of spirituality
and materialism. More emphatically, however, the work extends Seemayer's
work as a performance artist into the realm of static art. The canvases
themselves are made from discarded money sacks from various financial institutions.
Quite often a vestige of the printed name of the individual establishment
shows through the oil painted surface.
The simple and direct imagery features variants of the Buddha, all of which
are rendered in simple black and white. Sometimes the figure of the Buddha
is rendered in silhouette, sometimes as a crude shape. The postures vary.
He is even rendered once as a skeleton, a strong image which invokes the
spirituality latent in our mortality.
The paintings are laid out on the floor of the gallery, thus inviting interaction
from the viewer and different options for their inspection. The possibility
that one may actually walk on the canvases does not dismay the artist. "With
my paintings scattered about on the floor," he states, "their
preciousness was subjective. Each viewer decided individually how to interact
with them." Whatever damage to the work that might occur as a result
of this is intended to become part of the piece. With the new prayer rug
paintings an additional element of interaction has been incorporated into
the actual making of the image. A butterfly shape, superimposed over the
background image of the Buddha, is evident in each of the paintings. This
shape was created by the artist, sitting in a lotus position on the canvas,
and tracing with three large dramatic strokes around his seated body. The
effect "imposes my physical presence on the work," he asserts.
For over a decade Seemayer has been creating art in a variety of media including
video and performance art. It is not surprising that this multi-disciplinary
artist has found a way to incorporate his physical presence into essentially
contemplative images in a way that both reaffirms and subverts the underlying
motif. The emphatic nature of the traced, butterfly shape integrates the
temporal dynamism of Japanese brush painting with the painterly moment inherent
in modernist abstraction. Working against the ironic subtext of the materials,
Seemayer has nevertheless created works here that are directly hinged to
the idea of representation. Whatever abstract accidents occur to the work
as it is exhibitied with the various viewer options exercised gives the
work additional interest.
It is also fitting irony that these Buddha on Moneybags paintings
are actually mounted on pads which make them functionally serve as comfortable
rugs. The artist invites you to contemplatively repose in comfort if you
like. "One may passively observe and enjoy the ironic imagery of the
canvases," he declares, "or site and mediate upon them, finding
calmness and serenity in a refuge from the chaotic city in which the work
was created."
Also on view are graphite drawings, pencil sketches and stencil templates
used in the creation of this series.
