The Galleries at Crosstown Arts
Friday, September 27, 2024
Time: 6-8 pm
Tickets: Free and open to the public
ANA • LOG:
FOURTEEN PICS
ANA•LOG: Fourteen Pics is a cumulative project referencing elements from several continuing bodies of work by Lester Julian Merriweather including #JETBlack, WHITE(S) ONLY, Vanilla Extract, #WGW, COLOR(ED) THEORY and Merriweather’s most recent collage series, #BetterGardensAndJungles.
The works presented draw upon several sources: They take direct visual inspiration from the compositions of the 1982-88 Basquiat-Warhol Collaborations. ANA•LOG’s methodology invokes the long-rumored Dr. Dre concept album The Planets in which the famed producer executed each individual track of the album in a completely different genre, thus creating an intensely lush atmospheric soundscape that still would exist as parts of a whole. The gestural treatment of the layered and excavated surfaces pay homage to the experimental processes of the mid-60s Developer tool works by the late Jack Whitten as well as the innovative organic Tesserae paintings that Whitten continued creating until his death in 2018.
Language is key to the works included in ANA•LOG. In breaking down its linguistic aspects, Merriweather examined varied forms of the word Analog. The word is defined as “not computerized”; Analog is a counter-cultural delineation that separates itself from the “Digital”. The individually collaged-by-hand “units” in ANA•LOG function in a fashion similar to the amalgamation of pixels in the Digital space. One could recognize Analogous, “a comparison of two otherwise unlike things based on resemblance of a particular aspect” within the approach of Merriweather’s collage practice. In terms of Memphis slang, “Ana” is a shortened form of “Animosity”. “Log” in this instance serves as a “Recorded History”. ANA•LOG essentially serves as a “Record of Angers Remembered ” obtained through repeated racial disparities which are then immortalized within generalized/homogeneous American visual media. Merriweather examines the concept of agency over Black Visualization within American Popular Culture.
Size Matters
I’ve been thinking about scale and proportion a lot lately. The size of an object can make it seem important or unimportant. And we all measure things according to the size of ourselves. Things that are smaller than us can seem trivial, while larger objects can feel overwhelming. Yet, when considering the vastness of the universe, our planet seems tiny and inconsequential.
My current series focuses on the juxtaposition of small figures within expansive landscapes, alongside large scale portraits depicting figures of profound personal meaning from my childhood. The pieces involving small figures in massive spaces, create a sense of insignificance. The large portraits give off a sense of immense importance. But this is all relative to the size of the viewer and how it makes them feel.
I often think about how humans fit into this world and how small we actually are compared to the rest of the universe. I am very interested in the purpose of human existence, but it seems like we do a lot of weird things for no reason. And I’d like to learn as much as I can with my time here on Earth.
Still
My current work is more about the process of the painting than anything else. Of
course, there are themes and subjects I gravitate towards—figures and landscapes,
ideas of solitude and loneliness, etc.—but there is something so explorative and
meditative about painting that I’ve noticed becoming more and more the driving factor
for me. I find when I try to come up with ideas that are motivated by the final product I
get stuck. Lately I have decided to forego the control of the final product and just go
where a piece takes me. In doing so, I am looking at colors, shapes, and textures
differently than I was before, and I make decisions I probably wouldn’t have made if I
had planned everything out. I think focusing on the process has allowed me to lose a
little rigidity and to explore more, and that is what these pieces have been
