I have been meaning to write this review of Craig Yu and Felix Malnig’s work for a while, and though the show closed earlier this month at Devening Projects + Editions, I can’t help but remain haunted by the memory of seeing these two artists together. I love landscape painting, be it formal or conceptual, and both Yu and Malnig play on this genre’s ephemeral and arresting familiarity.
Craig Yu presents tonal plays of a landscape depicted aerially. At the same time, one may wonder if he sits closer to the subject matter, looking at a still life. The works vibrate between the two, and the viewer’s perception flips back and forth within the space. The mood seems to suggest a foggy haze in realization, with just enough play in light and its source to let the viewer accept a vantage point of both. What becomes more intriguing is the range of play within the context. We can be reminded of a cloudy memory as seen from a plane about to land in a treacherous domain or carpet lint and models forming a narrative of what was before and after. The juxtaposition suggests how we as people cast a perception and control or feel lost in the environment. Muted blue and green, faded and worn, depict what Japanese refer to as wabi-sabi, suggesting a beauty and wisdom found in loneliness of living in nature and being worn with age. This aesthetic is centered on the acceptance of transience and imperfection. Our empty or incomplete sense of the ephemeral nature to be identified between the two genres may also stir our desire for pattern recognition. Our ability to understand and conclude where we are within the works leaves a fond wonder in my mind.
In the off space, Felix Malnig presents another dichotomy in our traditional idea of landscape, but with the imprint of the human hand through architecture and motifs of civil engineering. Also creating an affect of transience, he depicts the forms of desolate and crumbling stations, useless cranes, skeletons of checkpoints and unrealized structures, and even a ghostly looking triumph of Mies van der Rohe: strong, direct, and cold. The brilliant toxic filter of unnatural color and finish through painting suggests destruction and an atmosphere incapable of supporting life. Elements are spray painted, stained and gesturally marked. Though the paintings suggest such ideas, there is an appealing aesthetic and sleek appeal, a careless yet precise staining of the canvas, hard edges and rhythmic linear precision. To show the dissolve and impermanence, is to create a quality of wabi-sabi, much like Craig Yu accomplishes.
One might conclude that wherever these places are, no longer exists. These images could be the last trace in the space and only mark a fragment of the linear narrative of these spaces. The way light falls into the void or the elements that are thrust and mold the play of light could be further changed and morph into the next form, where they represented again. Memory is fond of jumping back sand reclaiming a past progression and in nature, the progress is always cycling in a direction of causal effects. With paintings this is all the more visceral. We see the trace upon the surface and are remind of progress and transformation within the work itself.
For additional background on Craig Yu and Felix Malnig, please visit Devening Projects + Editions and deveningprojects.com.