Untitled 2019

Curator: This compelling work, simply titled "Untitled," comes to us from Thomas Riesner in 2019. It is primarily a drawing, making use of both ink and color to depict two figures. My immediate impression is of something raw and unsettling, like a child's nightmare rendered with adult awareness. The lines are crude, almost frantic. Editor: There's definitely an appealing visceral quality in its making, as well as its raw energy! It has a kind of directness achieved through minimal strokes. We're seemingly given a look into both the internal and external: an illustration or ink-based work rendered in red, black, gray, pink and blue flatly against the white surface of the drawing; what does the interplay of these limited set of material relationships elicit? Curator: I agree completely. It’s the simplicity of the media employed that I think is crucial here. What is it about ink, in particular, combined with these specific shades, that evokes such an intense emotion? And what narratives could it be alluding to? Editor: Well, we know the artist made this fairly recently: 2019, a moment in history shaped by the intense flow of media during turbulent times. Consider that digital modes of production create flattening effects akin to this visuality. Might this flattening have some affect and effect relationship on both our perception and modes of seeing in contemporary life? Is it perhaps a form of caricature, both reflecting and critiquing modes of digital communication by collapsing distinctions? Curator: Interesting thought! I also wonder about the potential connections to caricature art in terms of representing psychological states. Editor: Absolutely! The artist presents caricature's relation to psychology via cartoon forms! We see an interplay, here, in terms of how the human body appears, behaves, and can be constructed. This artist and their methods encourage us to deeply look into both internal, societal and material conditions. Curator: By limiting the figures into their raw and distilled shape. So as we stand here today I ask those tuning in to contemplate the narrative; how might its making invite further modes of inquiry, discourse, or action? Editor: Yes! Let the crude medium, along with flattened perspectives propel conversations reflecting the role of process, production, distribution, labor and reception. The drawing provides such ample room for this!