A Closer Look: Copy of the Original by Rachel Livedalen

It is our pleasure to present Rachel Livedalen’s solo exhibition, Copy of the Original, a series of works on panel that combine screen printed layers of Greco-Roman textbook pages (Page 56 Parts I - IV) with airbrush and gouache. Structured information depicted in these works relate to the construction and continuation of the art history canon and the way in which we understand visual culture. Textual information appropriated from the same art history text book page surfaces throughout the works and installation. The text is stretched, morphed, or veiled, then layered with different modes of visual information like coded symbols, colorful shapes, or erased gestures. The goal of the work is to question our understanding of visual information both from academic art history and popular culture as it relates to beauty, feminine representation, and artifice. Specifically, these paintings analyze the Knidian Aphrodite, the first sculpture of a female nude in Greek art that now only exists as a Roman copy. This canonical work from western art history thus embodies ideas of representation and reproduction throughout history.

Livedalen’s approach to painting is unmistakably informed by printmaking and often blurs the line between the two disciplines. In the piece, Page 56 Part III, paint is applied to the surface of her panel through careful layering. Livedalen expounds, “Page 56 Part III features a cropped view of the original art history book page, but all the text is masked by layers of black airbrush paint. Superimposed on top are colorful gouache shapes, further obscuring the information presented in the screen printed text layer of the painting.”

Page 56 Part I features a more gestural and loose black airbrushed mark, obscuring screen printed text and further pushing its illegibility. While the text is seemingly inaccessible, Livedalen leaves a thread of clues for the viewer. “In this work, colorful shapes are painted on top of each letter of the text and are coded so that each letter is given a specific color and shape.” This code of colorful shapes is carefully painted through a stencil, mimicking screen printing

The exhibition progresses to two more paintings, Revisions and To Dovetail, which continue to explore the layering and concealment of Livedalen’s symbols and text. Livedalen adds, “[these works] build off of the visual language explored in Page 56 Parts I-IV. […] They both use stenciling techniques to control the boundaries of these layers, exploring restraint of both material and visual reference.”

A large mural of gray text dominates the exhibition space and provides a familiar backdrop for Livedalen’s paintings. “This text excerpt again borrows from [the same text] as the paintings. This page records the beginning of a paragraph titled ‘The Female Nude A New Theme in Greek Art’.” The text is morphed as it waves across two adjoined walls in the gallery space and is adhered to the wall in a pale gray adhesive vinyl.

“The text is meant to transform the exhibition space beyond the neutral white gallery cube. It calls back to the reference explored in the paintings and provides a physical and symbolic background for the artworks.

The image of the Knidian Aphrodite is also represented in wall vinyl, but unceremoniously turned on her side and tucked under the gallery window.”

Copy of the Original will be on view through the end of August. The gallery lights will be left on 24 hours so that our local audience can safely access the exhibition through our large storefront windows while we remain closed to the public. We also invite you to view the works more closely through our Virtual Gallery Tour.

For pricing and additional information on the works in the show, please visit our Gallery Shop and feel free to reach out to me via email with any inquiries at sammi@isprojectsfl.com

Sincerely,
Sammi McLean
Gallery Coordinator
Printmaking & Book Arts Studio
17 NW 5th St Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301
www.isprojectsfl.com