In the surface-accreting layers of my paintings, I convey the overlapping of cultures and varied populations. Though the majority of my artwork uses landscape and architecture as reference points, the ideas underlying them arc from accommodation of cultures to their conflicts.
The references are often historical fragments that allude to the conflicts that have taken place between the cultures of the East and West. These histories though not temporally specific provide the cornerstone for my work; however, recreating history is often problematic as well as futile because of the shifting perspectives of the historian as well as those of the reader. Though the past plays a significant role in the work, the present historical moment plays a vital role as well. The past reverberates in the current moment; time and place commingle. Combining specific architectural references, landscape, and language (or visual references to language) as well as the language of painting, I seek to define the perilous nature of cultural autonomy. In some of the work language supersedes the visual, thus dominating the discourse of national superiority over cultural autonomy. The volatile notion of unadulterated heritages that has engulfed the United States and large parts of Europe is a fiction that I address in my work. The instability of this notion is explored in part in the paintings through balance or variance as well as bruised surfaces and pentimenti – used as a means of referencing text and trace elements extant on reused written surfaces (parchment, animal skins, papyrus) from the ancient world.
The fragmentation that provides an undercurrent in the work presents a visual attempt at capturing memory, efforts marked through indecision and omission.
Karen Lebergott
© Karen Lebergott 2013. All rights reserved. This project partially funded by the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency.
