The Maze is a visual language of contemplation and reflective meditation. As an art object, the Maze’s primary function is to slow to the viewer’s eye with intricate texture and non-traditional ground to the point where they are forced to confront its deconstructive logic. Consider a child’s maze on a restaurant placemat; with one entrance and one exit, a binary system of logic with one correct outcome.
Now consider The Maze as I have drawn it; either lacking an exit or having no openings at all. Suddenly there is no single correct answer, and in fact there are no wrong answers either. The viewer’s only course of action is to contemplate this and it’s implications. In order to expedite the viewer’s interaction with The Maze, I choose to display it in ways that divert from traditional painting practices such as using a point where two walls form a corner of the room to display a piece or working on clothing, drop cloths, and found objects such as a Rubik’s Cube. While the choice of ground varies infinitely, the materials I use are strictly limited to Sharpie products for their mark making qualities and visual reference to “punk-rock” aesthetic movements, e.g. Street Art.
The Maze is currently evolving beyond the wall to extend out into the tangible universe of contemporary painting. Through the aid of digital media and the use of sculptural/wearable surfaces, I seek to push The Maze to become a proliferated metaphor for day-to-day experience and showcase the full extent of it’s potential as a conversational catalyst. The ultimate goal of this body of work is to get the viewer to begin thinking about how they think about the things that they think about, and if nothing more, to question that altogether.
And Think About What You’ve Done, 2016, Acrylic ink on wood and paper, 60″ x 24″
And Think About What You’ve Done (Detail), 2016, Acrylic ink on wood and paper, 60″ x 24″
Zenith, 2016, Acrylic ink on PVC coated canvas, 48″ x 120″
Zenith (Detail), 2016, Acrylic ink on PVC coated canvas, 48″ x 120″
Maze Suit 1 (Back), 2016, Acrylic ink on polyethylene coveralls, 48″ x 72″
Sean Taillefer Studio 