Sri Lanka VI 1983

Robert Rauschenberg made this mixed media artwork titled ‘Sri Lanka VI’ sometime in 1983. The image feels like a memory, or a dream, you know? It’s not quite solid, more like a fleeting impression. The way Rauschenberg combines painting with printed images creates a layered effect, almost like palimpsest. There’s this tension between the flatness of the surface and the illusion of depth, especially in the way he lets the colors bleed and blend. Notice how the images are not fully present. They have an ethereal quality. The surface, it seems, has been built up in layers, scraped away and built up again. There is so much to sift through. This gives the piece a kind of historical resonance; like old walls covered with layers of posters and graffiti. It reminds me a little of Sigmar Polke who, like Rauschenberg, embraced a kind of beautiful messiness in his work. They both show us that art doesn’t always need to be about answers. Sometimes it’s enough to ask the questions.