“Narratives #4” is a collection that continues my ongoing winter theme of dark days/dark deeds with an emphasis on the cast of characters! Kenny Cole’s “Last Days” starts the set off with a pair of characters; a toothy red and white bedecked penguin confronting a muscular female Sisyphus. The confrontation indicates an unequal match as the female figure points accusingly at the crazed, steaming penguin who, waving frantically seems unable to prevent the gargantuan from completing her unknown task, hauling a weighted something connected to a rope outside the picture frame. Jennifer Beinhacker’s “Confidential” suggests surprise and conspiracy as an array of figures act out vignettes of the story within a midnight black background. Her “white line” rendering glows like an x-ray and folksy outsider style suggests a contemporary take on a possible biblical expulsion myth, with a confused God-like visage and primped up she-queens bracketing and blocking the panicked fleeing couple. Matt Lock’s “Pump Trap Rehearsal” sketches out an absurd cyber experiment in which a couple of hooded teenagers conduct a bizarre experiment on some kind of life-like sex robot. It is a male fantasy with infantile undertones as their equipment attempts to function like a breast pump, suggesting a deeply Freudian cycle and ominous dysfunction. Niklas Nenzén ‘s “Quiet Eye” represents the only work in this grouping whose subject is exclusively male, giving us a break from complex feminist analysis. Our main character is innocent enough, an honest Abominable Snowman emerging from his cave looking like an ordinary hockey player scattering miniature horses as he presents himself. The title suggests a focus and his owl sentry reinforces that idea, however the subject is elusive and we are locked into his small frozen world. Alice Sfintesco’s "Delores's Dream" presents a solitary figure in her signature silhouette style. We are viewing a female visage whose upper half has been blotted out with a large, amoeba-like fried egg, whose yolks appear to be nipples. The figure simply presents itself for our consumption making us keenly aware of our role as consumer, voyeur and interpreter of the formulaic role of women in our evolving societies. Much of this figure is a blank outline, just a suggestion or empty canvas in which we are free to project our inner reactions, hopes and dreams.
