Spring 2012: BFA thesis exhibit 'Thought Forms: Where a Personal Construct Emerges'

Show Dates: April 23-27
Opening Reception: Monday, April 23, 5:30-7:30 p.m.
Fine Arts Building, Kimura Gallery

The Bachelor of Fine Arts thesis exhibit, Thought Forms: Where a Personal Construct Emerges, oil paintings on canvas by Chad Harpel, will be featured at UAA's Kimura Gallery April 23-27.

Artist Statement:
My work uses the bathtub as a metaphorical space for physical and mental operations. In this space I incorporate anatomical references that are complex. Muscles and bones are distended, exaggerated, and fragmented throughout this series of paintings in a progression that can be viewed from a variety of perspectives. The anatomy that I am using is not a person. I view the anatomical parts as a visual representation of thought processes-an anatomy of ideas emanating from a psychological world that deconstructs and constructs a private dimension of meaning for myself. These "thought forms" look like anatomical layers revealing to the viewer tangible shapes representing intangible ideas. My influences stem from Surrealist notions of the psyche and there are allusions to the trompe-l'oeil techniques of artists such as Salvador Dalí.

The serialization of these paintings incorporates lettered and numbered titles. The implication is that the viewer should start at the beginning and end just as a movie does. However, the last painting (#1) is where the thought originated for this psychological "narrative" and the first painting (#5) constitutes the completely assembled and transformed idea. As one peels off the layers of the anatomy and unearths muscle and bone, these dissections are meant to be unsettling as they pass through various stages of metamorphosis. Since time is frozen in these paintings much like a still frame from a film, the viewer can edit the work and reconstruct their own storyline.