The wide world 2019

Curator: What a striking image! "The Wide World," a 2019 painting by Siegfried Zademack. It immediately evokes a kind of serene, almost melancholic, contemplation. The figure seems suspended between worlds, illuminated by the screen's glow. Editor: It’s odd, the juxtaposition. Those exaggerated, arching quills…almost architectural in their placement. Are they framing the scene, drawing our attention to the illuminated screen, the sole source of bright light? I find them slightly unsettling against the beach. Curator: Unsettling is apt. I believe that contrast, that dissonance, is key. Note the smooth transitions of color, the almost hyperreal rendering of flesh tones against the otherworldly elements. The tension between the classical nude, a symbol of timeless beauty, and the tablet, this very contemporary object, creates a stimulating dialectic. Editor: I see what you mean. Placing a nude on a beach is cliché. Pairing that figure with modern technology disrupts any straightforward reading of natural beauty. What could that combination represent? Curator: The title suggests an answer: “The Wide World.” The screen – or its digital access - presents an endless flow of data, like another ocean, the one to our left. Zademack invites a meditation on humanity’s relationship with that kind of ‘knowledge.’ It also creates some form of internal reflection that is very thought provoking. Editor: Yes, and the formal composition subtly reinforces this idea. The woman gazes fixedly at the screen, her back almost deliberately turned towards nature. A visual comment on detachment. She even looks lonely or at the very least detached from reality! Curator: Precisely. The arching quills also operate formally, leading our eye to a secondary, subtle, but much needed, sunset in the background. Editor: Interesting that despite her nakedness, the image does not particularly titillate. The subject has this contemplative demeanor. Almost stoic even. She is just pondering this odd relationship and tension with her screen. It actually serves as a visual comment on social detachment more broadly, right? Curator: Absolutely. By eschewing straightforward allegory, the artist activates viewers in thought: what IS that world she seeks? In which direction will the artist invite her viewer’s gaze? The image certainly has power by association rather than literal representation, and a haunting beauty. Editor: True. There's much to consider here, regarding digital presence, longing, knowledge, power, escapism – Zademack offers us quite a few rabbit holes into these modern worlds and digital dependency. Curator: It invites multiple perspectives! What you will discover in “The Wide World” says much about where you choose to look.