Beyond Swing 

Editor: This is “Beyond Swing” by Mark Kostabi, an acrylic painting featuring a jazz band rendered in smooth, almost mannequin-like figures. I find the color palette both playful and unsettling, and the swirling lines add a frenetic energy. What do you see in this piece? Curator: I see a fascinating conversation about the body, particularly the body in performance. Kostabi often uses these de-individualized figures. They're like classical nudes, stripped of personality yet intensely physical. What do these figures playing instruments evoke for you? Editor: A sense of detached professionalism, perhaps? They’re present but also removed. Like cogs in a machine dedicated to making music. Curator: Precisely! Notice the swirling lines, seemingly random but actually acting as energetic links and symbolic constraints. Think of music itself, composed of frequencies that harmonize. Kostabi presents us with geometric boundaries that hint at underlying, mathematical orders. What are some other images or feelings these lines and musical notes evoke in you? Editor: Chaos, but also control. Like musical notations trapped in the space, like they cannot leave, maybe referring to limitations or struggles. Curator: That is very astute! Kostabi often deals with paradoxes. It’s a push-and-pull that’s characteristic of modern life. These images are not a faithful representation of reality but instead represent an interpretation or experience of it. The title "Beyond Swing" almost promises a departure from something expected into an expanded or more creative form of jazz, maybe hinting to leaving all of the previous ideas. Editor: That's given me a totally different perspective. I initially saw the anonymity of the figures as a limitation, but it opens to a world of symbolical meanings. Curator: Indeed. Art like this challenges us to go “beyond” our initial perceptions and look for layers of encoded symbolism.