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| "Our Town,"
1995. Acrylic and collage on unstretched canvas; 100 x 124 inches.
Collection of the artist. |
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“Our Town”
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With Colonial-style homes,
an apron-clad
mother, two kids, and the family dog, "Our Town" would seem
to be an idyllic portrait of suburban America - comparable perhaps
to Thornton Wilder's 1938 play of the same title, or to television
sitcom families of the 1950s. Yet this portrait of suburban life
is not as straightforward as it might initially seem. Yellow ribbons
adorn nearly every tree, indicating that there is a tragedy (such
as war or violence) abroad or at home. A prominent feature of the
composition is a road that cuts through the neighborhood, virtually
spilling out into the space of the viewer. Like the ribbons, the
road indicates that this ideal community is not as isolated from
the world as it may appear - the road connecting the image, quite
literally, to the viewer's own neighborhood or "our town." Emblazoned
above the image and adorned with ribbons carried by bluebirds, the
title of the work begs the question of whose town this really is,
and if we ourselves are included in the artist's vision. There is
also not one home in this painting, but many identical homes, suggesting
that this picturesque neighborhood is a planned community of lower-income
housing units, lending the title "Our Town" an ironic twist.
Nearly as black as the road itself is the skin tone of the two children
who race along it. At first glance a joyous picture, this celebration
of suburban life becomes unsteady when one considers the unsmiling
faces of the youths. The young boy riding the bike looks out of
the painting at the viewer with a sidelong, apprehensive glance,
sizing us up as we do him. The young
girl confronts the viewer's gaze headlong and runs with fists
closed, her right arm raised in a gesture reminiscent of "black
power." As the sun sets or rises on this idyllic picture (one can't
really be sure if it is dusk or dawn), it's unclear whether the
mother is wishing her children off into the day or calling them
home as they run dangerously into the night, the family dog barking
at their heels. Throughout the painting, collaged pieces of paper
and abstract
swatches of dripping paint coexist with carefully crafted clouds
and a misplaced ruby red toy ball. The thought bubble from the young
girl's head connects with the picturesque home like a dream, as
much as it runs up against this home as an impossibility, the paint
collecting in globs against a closed front door. This is a subtle
reminder that the vision before the eyes is an artifice - a world
made out of paint and under construction. Marshall remarks that
treating the canvas this way "disrupts the narrative flow, so that
the image doesn't present things in a seamless, holistic way, but
a vision that has complex overlays that somehow seem unrelated."
Presenting a vision as surreal as it is immediately recognizable,
Marshall uses the language and history of painting as a way to mingle
real and imaginary perceptions of American society. |
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