Cathedral 2012

Curator: Darren Waterston's "Cathedral," from 2012. It’s rendered in acrylic on canvas. What's your immediate take on it? Editor: It’s striking—the dominant red tones create a sense of otherworldly heat, but the delicate lines add an ethereal quality. Almost like a landscape from a dream, teetering between beautiful and unsettling. Curator: The abstraction definitely pushes beyond literal representation. Given the title "Cathedral," and Waterston's practice of referencing historical painting, consider how form becomes the driving force of meaning here. What construction materials, what structural decisions result in this "cathedral?" Editor: The lines shooting upward mimic Gothic arches, but they're organic, like twisted branches or veins. There’s that pale horizon line dividing a dense, reddish earth from an indistinct sky; how that contrast pulls your eye upwards along these linear forms, mimicking a sense of elevation and architectural height. The repetition of form emphasizes that sense of constructed space, if that makes sense. Curator: Absolutely. We could think about Waterston’s labor, too. The repetitive layering of acrylic, creating both texture and that hazy, dreamlike atmosphere; how those physical acts become crucial to producing this almost spiritual experience. This is a cathedral, of sorts, made of pigment and brushstrokes, each touch adding to its otherworldly presence. He chooses this industrial medium. Editor: And the lack of clearly defined space? It's there, but also it dissolves, destabilizes… The atmospheric perspective, the way forms recede into the background. The bubbles could also be a symbol for the sacred; they definitely bring to my mind the oculus from the pantheon and also recall medieval stained glass, which provides light and an otherworldly illumination to a church or cathedral setting. Curator: So that interplay between solid structure and ethereal formlessness? I wonder about it speaking to the inherent contradictions within systems of faith – the attempt to solidify the intangible, to contain the uncontainable. Editor: I'd not thought of the work in these terms. I came in expecting simply the structure but there's a tension here beyond the surface. Curator: Precisely. It is the sum of material and form but also beyond, in this abstract depiction of form. Editor: A worthwhile stop, indeed. Thanks for pointing me to the tensions and materiality!