Exhibition

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Fill in the Blanks

Erik Sausa

May 25 - June 19, 2010

Gallery 3

In Fill in the Blanks, artist Frederick Sausa allows viewers to add their own references and insights as they see the images on display. Sausa, for his part, is also filling in the void after not painting for quite some time: “I feel like I’m a novice again.”
Sausa says he is exploring every possible theme he can think of, playing around with the idea of going beyond the two-dimensionality aspect of painting. “The point of reference is what matters when I snatched up pictures from Google, which is customary among my peers nowadays, aside from glossy, chic, and underground art magazines [as sources]. I appropriate these images, insinuate meanings according to my fancy, make my own version via a hit-or-miss approach, and then let the viewers fill the gap. It is a bit collaborative in visual perception.”
Two works in oil on canvas, titled “The Sultan’s Throne” and “Flight of the Dragons,” have battery-operated clocks inserted in the middle. Shares Sausa, “These are suspension points over pictures that I copied from existing photographs. I considered these as deadpan subjects but, later, they may induce some storytelling…”
“Flight of the Dragons” was based on Sausa’s childhood recollection of what he has seen on television when he was younger. “As far as I can remember, it was an animated film with an unsettling and very sensitive storyline about millions of dragons doomed to extinction.”
Another piece, titled “To Those Who Love Me,” features a woman annoyed at the sight of the Pope falling asleep in public. The image of the Pope was taken from online paparazzi photographs shot during a mass, while Marilyn Monroe, doing an improvisation act during a studio photo session, was the inspiration for the image of the woman. Sausa also notes an affinity to Madonna and the controversies between her and the Vatican.
Sausa hopes to create more works that will reflect his goals in making them, just as he did in “Two Birds, One Stone,” a diptych that spurred new ideas for his next exhibit, and is also looking forward to discover his creative potential in installation art.