本篇集結了美國藝術家Marissa Long的三個系列：Cat's Eye、Father Inire's Flowers、Father Inire's Flowers。三者闡述的主題不同，卻同樣以精緻的佈局的呈現，隱晦地暗示人工感的異常。Marissa宛若築起一座華美的標本室，將一個個抽離了靈體、徒留表象的空殼打上了聚光燈，刻意聚焦失了衡的美麗，令人重新評估其意義與價值。值得想像的是，當藝術對現實施加一種同質性（美）的反擊，在這物質面極其豐盈的世代，或許不啻是一雙咬腳的新鞋？

 

 

Represented here are three small series. The first five images are a series called Cat's Eye, which considers attempts to preserve and amplify feminine beauty in ways that can become absurd - earnest attempts overwrought past the point of sense and transformed into presentations that are sometimes silly, pathetic, or almost kitschy. 

 

The next five floral images are from a series called Father Inire's Flowers, which I made while reading both a book on quantum physics and a novel from a science fiction series by Gene Wolfe. The title comes from the latter, in which a character named Father Inire has an octagonal enclosure of mirrors that have the implied ability to transmit matter over astronomical distances. I was thinking about this and some theories of quantum physics (of which I probably don't understand as much as I think!) while making each of these pictures.

In the making of the last triptych of images, Buried Treasure, I had the idea that each item on the pedestal was put there for display as a precious object, while also being totally concealed by the drapery over top, which is meant to protect it. I like the contradiction in the impulse to present something considered so valuable that the very act of displaying it in a way that honors that value is thwarted by the fear of it being contaminated. The exhibitor smothers and erases the things she sets out to revere, preserving and hoarding them for an uncertain future rather than experiencing them in the present.

 

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Marissa Long is an artist based in Arlington, Virginia, USA. She has exhibited internationally, and is the founder of Great Big Iceberg, an online arts publication.