Shelter from the Blood 1988

Curator: Let’s turn our attention to Mark Kostabi's, *Shelter from the Blood*, painted in 1988, in acrylic paint. It's rather striking, wouldn't you say? Editor: Striking, yes, in a perplexing way. My immediate thought is of vulnerability amidst something quite violent. The vibrant blue against the figure and that splash of red – it's unsettling, like a beautiful nightmare. Curator: Nightmarish, perhaps. Though Kostabi's art dances between modernism, surrealism and pop idioms to tease our perception. We might read those rivulets of red symbolically: Passion, violence, maybe even a kind of forced purification, all directed towards this nude figure who is taking shelter over an upside down pot, which can be understood as being in distress. Editor: I notice the pot as a grounding, yet broken base for this anonymous figure. The red is the blood but perhaps is more complex; blood can signify life. Consider it along with the classical, faceless nude standing proud in this harsh environment. Doesn’t this evoke ritual and sacrifice? Like Iphigenia about to be sacrificed? Curator: That classical reference is interesting. There's a detachment, the anonymous, every-person quality that he uses in much of his other work that deflects personal drama onto universal experiences. Do you find that tension effective or distancing? Editor: Effective, I think. We bring our own stories to it. I'm thinking of archetypes and the primal fear of being exposed, while also of being upheld. The red seems both threatening and a baptism, and a cleansing of an environment of a post- modern spiritual crisis. The composition seems to represent an uncanny return to life; our figure comes from within this space – now exposed from within this empty vase. Curator: That's a lovely thought. A stark reminder that our symbols can transform as needed. I find the overall design very thought-provoking. Editor: As do I. Thanks to its raw emotional openness I could analyze this work for a lot longer. It feels deeply familiar in its disquiet.