Is this Still Life?

In the exhibition, Is This Still Life?, paintings are full of saturated colors, various mark-making techniques, and references to contemporary experience. Artist Bobby Haulotte uses still lifes as a tool to create visually active compositions. The paintings reference everyday objects, memes, Photoshop, computer vision technology, screenshots from TV shows, and stock photography. The work is influenced by technology and its effects on image making and sharing, cognitive biases, and the workings of human perception.

The process for the work in Is This Still Life? begins with creating and photographing a still life. Throughout the process the image of the still life acts as a structure where I collage various marks and references. I use Photoshop to edit the photos by changing colors, removing backgrounds, and collaging in other images. These digital drawings act as a malleable blueprint for my paintings. Through painting I reinterpret the digital drawings with a wide range of mark-making strategies using paint as well as other materials such as googly eyes, iridescent films, and the plywood panels I paint on.

By depicting the playful compositions of objects in the still lifes with varying styles of marks they can be seen simultaneously as recognizable signifiers and abstracted shapes of color. The disparities between the various marks representing the objects point to imagery in general as a mediated construction rather than a truthful representation. Through different levels of representation and illusion in a single composition, visual perception and thinking collaborate in constructing a more coherent image from fragmented references. Playful arrangements in both subject matter and mark-making mimic the ways images, identities, and ideals are constructed through our experience of media, our relationship with the material world, and the cognitive biases we carry with us.

The work in Is This Still Life? uses the interplay between abstraction and recognition to create a place for visual perception to be engaged, playful, and constructive. By leaving the construction of a more coherent image than what is provided up to the viewer, the mediated nature of both images and our perception becomes more apparent.
bobbyhaulotte@gmail.com