Virginia-based artist Rain Spann gives form to the sublime. The aesthetic dimensions of
the artist's work point to the indispensable role that inscrutability and opacity play in the
ceremony of bringing about the worlds we wish to inhabit. This gesture is achieved, in
part, through elusive interplays between media-as seen, for example, in the artist's mixed
media collage on paper, Sun Soldier I (2021), presented most recently in COLLIDE
& SCOPE at Knowhere Gallery in Oaks Bluffs, MA. What emerges from the artist's
particular bringing-together-of-things is an enigmatic coalescence, one that coaxes the
viewer closer, closer, and closer still while refusing to position Sun Soldier I as an entity
available to be "understood."
Measuring 20" X 30", Sun Soldier I is Spann's own kind of surreal portrait: a technicolor
bust - refracted. Enveloped by a blaze of orange and purple acrylic paint, Sun Soldier
I's face is turned up to the sky. Wide brush strokes of acrylic paint merge to render the
figure's serene profile, spilling a tranquil blue hue over her smooth forehead, parted
lips and chin and bringing an electric violent and green gradient to her nose. Delicate
dustings of black and white spray paint weave amidst layers of darkened construction
paper to sculpt the petal shaped formations that protrude triumphantly from the crown
of Sun Soldier I's head.
the artist's work point to the indispensable role that inscrutability and opacity play in the
ceremony of bringing about the worlds we wish to inhabit. This gesture is achieved, in
part, through elusive interplays between media-as seen, for example, in the artist's mixed
media collage on paper, Sun Soldier I (2021), presented most recently in COLLIDE
& SCOPE at Knowhere Gallery in Oaks Bluffs, MA. What emerges from the artist's
particular bringing-together-of-things is an enigmatic coalescence, one that coaxes the
viewer closer, closer, and closer still while refusing to position Sun Soldier I as an entity
available to be "understood."
Measuring 20" X 30", Sun Soldier I is Spann's own kind of surreal portrait: a technicolor
bust - refracted. Enveloped by a blaze of orange and purple acrylic paint, Sun Soldier
I's face is turned up to the sky. Wide brush strokes of acrylic paint merge to render the
figure's serene profile, spilling a tranquil blue hue over her smooth forehead, parted
lips and chin and bringing an electric violent and green gradient to her nose. Delicate
dustings of black and white spray paint weave amidst layers of darkened construction
paper to sculpt the petal shaped formations that protrude triumphantly from the crown
of Sun Soldier I's head.
The figures' eyes are invisible to us, obscured by a mélange of inky hues evoking, at
once, a black hole and the entire cosmos. Perhaps her eyes are closed in a moment of
contemplation. Maybe she is daydreaming of what it will take for us to remain - here.
The important thing is we do not know. In sum, Spann's choice to obscure Sun Soldier I's
eyes points to the mechanisms forged for posterity, and in order to skirt the constricting
nature of conjecture.
Relatedly, upon first glance, the collage appears to be two-dimensional, but Spann
knows something about the futurity embedded in the act of fooling the eye. As one
follows the line from the figure's lifted chin to their angular neck and back up again to
the rounded edges of their regal coiffure, swaths of acrylic paint transition seamlessly
into construction paper, and then again into airy brushes of spray paint. Considering the
meeting points of the myriad media employed are low-relief, we may consider that Sun
Soldier I's dimensions (both literal and metaphorical) are revealed only to those who
take care enough to linger.
By obscuring where Sun Soldier I's various qualities begin and end, Spann creates a
possibility in which the figure depicted (and by extension, each of us who encounter
the work) can exceed one-dimensional or flat apprehensions. After all, to apprehend
Sun Soldier I in its inalienable totality, we must step forward, quiet down and commit to
forging an interpretive frame capacious enough to circumnavigate reduction.
once, a black hole and the entire cosmos. Perhaps her eyes are closed in a moment of
contemplation. Maybe she is daydreaming of what it will take for us to remain - here.
The important thing is we do not know. In sum, Spann's choice to obscure Sun Soldier I's
eyes points to the mechanisms forged for posterity, and in order to skirt the constricting
nature of conjecture.
Relatedly, upon first glance, the collage appears to be two-dimensional, but Spann
knows something about the futurity embedded in the act of fooling the eye. As one
follows the line from the figure's lifted chin to their angular neck and back up again to
the rounded edges of their regal coiffure, swaths of acrylic paint transition seamlessly
into construction paper, and then again into airy brushes of spray paint. Considering the
meeting points of the myriad media employed are low-relief, we may consider that Sun
Soldier I's dimensions (both literal and metaphorical) are revealed only to those who
take care enough to linger.
By obscuring where Sun Soldier I's various qualities begin and end, Spann creates a
possibility in which the figure depicted (and by extension, each of us who encounter
the work) can exceed one-dimensional or flat apprehensions. After all, to apprehend
Sun Soldier I in its inalienable totality, we must step forward, quiet down and commit to
forging an interpretive frame capacious enough to circumnavigate reduction.
