Me after you 2014

Editor: Here we have Joseph Dadoune's "Me after you," a 2014 oil on canvas with a heavy impasto application. The overwhelming darkness, the thick layering of the paint...it feels almost like looking at a void. What can you tell us about it? Curator: Indeed. It's a powerful, almost unsettling piece. Notice the incredible texture. It's more than just paint; it's a material exploration. The color black has, across millennia, represented everything from mourning and death to power and sophistication. Do you see any residual form despite the abstraction? Editor: Now that you mention it, toward the bottom, those curved strokes…maybe reminiscent of a landscape or a figure being consumed? Curator: Precisely. Consider how the rough, almost brutal, application of the paint itself becomes symbolic. Think about ritualistic objects—earth daubed on bodies in mourning, or the application of ashes. Is this destruction, creation, or purgation? Editor: So, the symbolic meaning comes not just from recognizable images but also from the materials and the process. It feels intensely personal and raw, almost like a memory being unearthed, then buried again. Curator: Well said. This speaks to the cultural memory inherent in materials. Dadoune uses oil paint, a classical medium, to express a very contemporary feeling of displacement or trauma. It invites reflection on both personal and collective histories. How does that awareness impact you as the viewer? Editor: It definitely shifts my perception, making me think about the layers of meaning beneath that initially perceived darkness. It almost humanizes it. Curator: A beautiful summation. Hopefully our listeners gain deeper insights into art’s capacity to represent the depth of personal and shared experiences through powerful abstract representation.