Carol Rhodes
Inlet, 1997
oil on board
47.5 x 40.5 x 2 cm, 18 3/4 x 16 x 3/4 in,
49 x 42.1 x 4 cm 19 1/4 x 16 5/8 x 1 1/2 in framed
unique
49 x 42.1 x 4 cm 19 1/4 x 16 5/8 x 1 1/2 in framed
unique
Once described as “faithful records of places that do not exist,” Carol Rhodes’ paintings are fictional syntheses, landscapes grounded in a reaction to things seen and felt in the real...
Once described as “faithful records of places that do not exist,” Carol Rhodes’ paintings are fictional syntheses, landscapes grounded in a reaction to things seen and felt in the real world.
Inlet is a geographic term which describes an arm of a body of water, or conversely, a place or a means of entry. As is typical to Rhodes’ compositions, Inlet, 1997, has a centralized, peripheral geographic perspective. Departing from its definitive naturalistic titleage, the composition places equal priority and emphasis on developed and artificially landscaped geography which surrounds the eponymous estuary. Rhodes uses paint sparingly, instead of an additive process she was known to paint wet on wet and to scrape away paint to achieve a single surface layer. The application of paint, paired with the smoothing effect of distance which diminishes and abstracts the subject, produces imagery which evokes a sense of social dislocation and alienation. The recognizable structures evidencing human life are reduced to abstract geometry, these architectures serving as the negative space of humans– otherwise absent from her work.
Taking the vantage point and aesthetic pragmatism of satellite imagery, her paintings imply a certain accuracy which they are in fact lacking. Both in content and as amalgams of different locations, Rhodes’ compositions distort the characteristics they borrow from photography, flattening and extending the plane of focus to the center of the image and which, due to the tertiary colors and lack of cast shadow and contrast, render her scenes in a moody atmospheric cloud. The land and water in Inlet is filtered through a green haze, lacking a tumultuous empiric depiction of water, rather capturing a quiet and motionless view of nature rarely experienced in reality.
Inlet is a geographic term which describes an arm of a body of water, or conversely, a place or a means of entry. As is typical to Rhodes’ compositions, Inlet, 1997, has a centralized, peripheral geographic perspective. Departing from its definitive naturalistic titleage, the composition places equal priority and emphasis on developed and artificially landscaped geography which surrounds the eponymous estuary. Rhodes uses paint sparingly, instead of an additive process she was known to paint wet on wet and to scrape away paint to achieve a single surface layer. The application of paint, paired with the smoothing effect of distance which diminishes and abstracts the subject, produces imagery which evokes a sense of social dislocation and alienation. The recognizable structures evidencing human life are reduced to abstract geometry, these architectures serving as the negative space of humans– otherwise absent from her work.
Taking the vantage point and aesthetic pragmatism of satellite imagery, her paintings imply a certain accuracy which they are in fact lacking. Both in content and as amalgams of different locations, Rhodes’ compositions distort the characteristics they borrow from photography, flattening and extending the plane of focus to the center of the image and which, due to the tertiary colors and lack of cast shadow and contrast, render her scenes in a moody atmospheric cloud. The land and water in Inlet is filtered through a green haze, lacking a tumultuous empiric depiction of water, rather capturing a quiet and motionless view of nature rarely experienced in reality.