'City of Glass 22- (Cleave/The Fall)'

City of Glass 22 - (Cleave, The Fall)        120x100cms

 

This piece continues the exploration of the power of the divide and also references Stillman's musings about 'the fall', where, quoting Milton: 'It was out of the rind of one apple tasted that good and evil leapt forth into the world, like two twins cleaving together'

'Stillman also dwelled on the paradox of the word 'cleave', which means both to join together and to break apart'*

The idea was to split/cleave Manhattan in two, one side New York today with the grid and Central Park and the piers and the other side how Manhattan would have looked at the time of the Garden of Eden, a natural, empty landscape....

However, to establish the shape on the 'natural', before the fall, green right side, I used the grid and enjoyed the marks that appeared....then I found/made an immense red which dictated the direction of the painting.  In the early stages of the painting, Stillman's face stared at the viewer between the two sides, but then colour took over.

I have a  same sized canvas- lets see what happens tomorrow...

 

*from 'The New York Trilogy' by Paul Auster