Fireplace 2001

Curator: Right, let’s turn our attention to Christian Attersee's "Fireplace," completed in 2001 using acrylic on canvas. Editor: Oh, this… this feels like a chaotic dream. A collage of thoughts and sensations, vivid but unsettling. The man there, rendered so starkly, looks rather lonely. Curator: Indeed. Note how Attersee uses the contrasting black-and-white photograph against the painterly, expressionistic background. This juxtaposition immediately creates tension. Editor: The photograph looks pasted on, like it’s fighting its way out. There are layers upon layers and something that reads as a disembodied head on the left, right? Almost fighting the portrait of the artist with a fan. What a curious dance this creates, the expressive paint alongside a monochrome photo. Curator: Observe too the way the painting references painting. Note the sketched-out easel. Consider Attersee commenting on the nature of artistic creation and self-representation, a pictorial essay. Editor: Or maybe… a diary page ripped and glued and scribbled all over? There's raw energy here, wouldn’t you agree? That almost scribbled, restless use of acrylic – it makes you want to tear it apart and put it back together. Curator: Well, I am not so sure. One sees a calculated tension between the planned, as exemplified by the artist’s photographic rendering and the perceived accidental gesture, an immediacy in color strokes and application. Editor: But don’t those fiery strokes seem more vital because they butt up against the coldness of the photo? Makes the naked dude look a bit cheeky too. Like, "Look what I'm surrounded by!" A comment, surely? Curator: Perhaps. We have identified the interplay between control and liberation in "Fireplace." I found myself engaged by Attersee’s composition; it presents complex aesthetic theory. Editor: For me, "Fireplace" has all the heat of a passionate midnight revelation. As an artist I understand what can happen on those nights! It really stays with you.