Magnetic Fields 2017

Joshua Flint's Magnetic Fields is an undated painting that features figures moving hesitantly across an ambiguous space. The social conditions of painting in the present day encourage an artist to question its own status. The ethereal, half-formed figures in the painting might suggest the way that individuals are buffeted by social forces beyond their control. The featureless faces could stand for our alienation from one another in a world saturated with images. The ambiguous light and uncertain surroundings could represent the disorienting effects of contemporary politics. The work seems to ask: What is the role of painting when the institutions that once sustained it are gone? What is left for art when the public sphere splinters into echo chambers? To understand works like this, we need to consider not just the artist's intentions, but also the economic and institutional structures that shape artistic production. It is through this kind of inquiry that we can understand the true meaning of art.