Translation is central to my studio practice. Beyond the retention of meaning across mediums, this work approaches translation as an alchemic experience. How does meaning expand or mutate as something is rendered in a new form or context? Through the alteration of material conventions, a reinvigoration of meaning is possible.
Nail polish exists exclusively for a body. It is intended to adorn and beautify. What happens when the body is withheld? What other purpose can such a seductive and volatile substance serve? In my current work, the promise and ideal of beauty, without the requisite body, becomes the object of the gaze, the figure, the subject.
Bottles of nail polish are intuitively selected from the shelves of pharmacy and grocery store chains. In the creation of these paintings, nail polish is poured directly from the bottle and manipulated by gravity. Chance is continually negotiated to create forms and compositions. Undulating figures brimming with liquid vitality are suspended within sterile fields. These decadent specimens are pulled down by their own weight, writhing out of space, and collapsing back in on themselves. The sensuality of the figures’ anatomy is contrasted by the industrial planes of color and space they inhabit. The reflectivity of the plexiglass incorporates the viewer and surrounding environment into the painted world. Just as the figures confront the viewer, so too does the viewer’s own reflection, inviting them to consider the act of looking. Each resulting work is titled by splicing together the names of colors of nail polish used in the painting. Incorporating the branding of these widely accessible cosmetic products into the final presentation underscores normative notions of beauty, adornment, decadence, and femininity within the vernacular of contemporary consumer culture. Finally, the “bottle of nail polish” is placed back on the shelf, transmuted into a hybrid space where the grotesque melds with the enticing, the visceral coexists with the optical, and the lyrical challenges the impervious and the fluidity and irregularity of beauty is the site of contemplation.
Emily Hake Massie
1.2019