Xiyadie Queer Cut Utopias
Xiadie’s Queer Cut Utopias are works of colorful paper cutout overlayed on either black or white backgrounds. They are brilliant: delicate and abstract at a glance, until your eyes fall upon a recognizable phallus or sex-act that beckons a second look. These works are saturated in water based dye and chinese pigments, pinks greens and yellows, and absorbed by the xuan paper which is cut out in a continuous line style. This continuous cutout makes the works seem delicate and shows the artist's care, who is cutting through the most intimate love-making scenes, where the space to cut out is so small that it seems impossible the paper didn’t rip. The paper-rip tension supplies another layer to the intimacy of these works.
Queer Cut Utopias is now at the Drawing Center, and comprises works both small and large, framed in black, and lining the walls of the lower floor. The experience of seeing these works is like seeing a fruit bowl from afar, or a garden within a house, and then as you get closer this impression dissolves and the piece transforms into a human ouroboros: a love fest. Naked figures chasing themselves, and others, in the pursuit of love and pleasure.
Ariel Rich
New Draft:
Xiadie’s Queer Cut Utopias are made of colorful paper cutouts overlayed on either black or white backgrounds. They are brilliant: delicate and abstract at a glance, until your eyes fall upon a recognizable phallus or sex-act that invites a second look. These works are saturated in water-based dye and Chinese pigments, pinks greens and yellows, absorbed by the Xuan paper that is cut in continuous lines. This continuous cutout makes the works seem delicate and demonstrates the artist's care, cutting through the most intimate love-making scenes, where the space to cut out is so small that it seems impossible not to rip the paper. The paper-rip tension from this delicate act supplies another layer of intimacy in this work.
“Queer Cut Utopias” comprises works both small and large, framed in black, and lining the walls of the lower floor. The experience of seeing these works is like seeing a fruit bowl from afar, or a garden within a house, colors but not able to make out what is happening and then as you get closer this impression dissolves and the piece transforms into recognizable human limbs. Humans on top of each other, surrounding each other: a love fest.
The way that Xiyadie has constructed and placed each of the paper pieces is in fact indicative of extreme care and thoughtfulness, which is then extended to the phallic scenes that are being depicted throughout all the works. At first glance this images can be construed as lewd or of bad taste, however the interchangeable elements from figure to background cement these people and the acts they are pursuing normal. These scenes are one with the nature they are surrounded in suggesting that this is only natural and should be encouraged. These acts can be just as delicate, exciting, and precious as the work that has been put into making these papercut pieces.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed how you focused on the materiality of Xiyadie's work in this review because the material is so important. As you said, the work at first looks like representations of objects, but as one get's closer the truth of what is being represented becomes clear. The process of looking and piecing together the work is so important, and the fragile material brings on a narrative of gentleness to the intimate scenes. I think something else that is related to the material is how time consuming cutting each and every piece of paper was. I believe this contributes to the context of the love-making scenes- adding intention.
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