Portrait of Person no.1 + CR Brick Slab
Collection:CSM Museum & Study Collection
Date: 2020-2022
Artist: Lucas Rankin
Dimensions:
300 × 400 × 10 mm (30 × 40 × 1 cm) - PA.2023.467.CC.1
215 × 140 × 10 mm (21.5 × 14 × 1 cm) -PA.2023.467.CC.2
Medium: Mix-media, Oil
Object number: PA.2023.476.CC.1-2
DescriptionTwo works by Lucas Rankin. Description by the artist: Painting always has an intentions to try and describe a subject, figuration or form through
the use of paint (that being an abstract idea or clear representation). But without the subject
in-mind, using the process of painting, to find and capture the subject within the proximity
of the canvas leaves the work in a state of alienation, alluding to a question ‘is this a self
portrait or something more ambiguous’. This portrait that seeps through abstract patterns
can only be seen through the notion of pareidolia (seeing faces in textures or banal
appliances, like door nobs or taps). Hauntology (ghosts) lives within the picture. Rationally
there isn’t anything besides a sublated amount of paint, yet the painting still contains
identifiable faces within the static energy of marks (noise). Each mark that is placed
contains an indelible action that can’t be removed, which, as a process paints the work
itself, excavating ephemeral entity’s that can’t be seen with the naked eye and embedding
them on a surface. This is all speculation, but that’s the ambiguous part. For the viewer, the
painting allows you to see different images, giving each viewer a different interaction and
response that creates lucid subjectivity, meaning, the viewer has their own individual
relationship with the painting, diving deeper into the surface, which at the same time, looks
back at you, allowing you to see the painting as ones own reflection or self portrait.
the use of paint (that being an abstract idea or clear representation). But without the subject
in-mind, using the process of painting, to find and capture the subject within the proximity
of the canvas leaves the work in a state of alienation, alluding to a question ‘is this a self
portrait or something more ambiguous’. This portrait that seeps through abstract patterns
can only be seen through the notion of pareidolia (seeing faces in textures or banal
appliances, like door nobs or taps). Hauntology (ghosts) lives within the picture. Rationally
there isn’t anything besides a sublated amount of paint, yet the painting still contains
identifiable faces within the static energy of marks (noise). Each mark that is placed
contains an indelible action that can’t be removed, which, as a process paints the work
itself, excavating ephemeral entity’s that can’t be seen with the naked eye and embedding
them on a surface. This is all speculation, but that’s the ambiguous part. For the viewer, the
painting allows you to see different images, giving each viewer a different interaction and
response that creates lucid subjectivity, meaning, the viewer has their own individual
relationship with the painting, diving deeper into the surface, which at the same time, looks
back at you, allowing you to see the painting as ones own reflection or self portrait.