The Orphans: nightmarish innocents

The Orphans: nightmarish innocents
by Susan Wolf
Childhood: a carefree, happy time,
before we were corrupted by the world
at large. The current exhibit of the Corvo
Brothers at the Sangre de Cristo Arts
Center shatters that delusion to pieces.
Their series, Orphans, depicts
beautiful children in bizarre, baroque
tableaus evoking some disturbing insights
into the minds of our purest selves. Think
of Rembrandt-meets-Norman Rockwellmeets-Tim Burton.
Oculus Dexter, one of the most
successful pieces in the exhibit, is a
portrait of a cherubic young boy holding
a balloon and a lollipop. Sounds innocent
enough, except that the boy is wearing an
eye patch and the balloon isn’t a balloon
at all, but rather his missing eye floating
next to him with the ocular nerves serving
as a string. Other images include a young
mourner in her goldfish cemetery, a child
photographer unveiling the severed head
of Medusa and a girl running her stuffed
animal through a meat grinder.
The Corvo Brothers work in mixed
media, photographing specific elements
of the composition, painting the
backgrounds and then using Photoshop
to create a final digital image. The image
is then printed on fine archival paper,
mounted on panel board and hand-varnished.
The result is a strikingly crisp digital image with
a warmth from the hand-painting not usually
found in digital art forms.
In artwork that uses disturbing images, I
question if it is done for mere shock value; it’s
not so with the Corvo Brothers. The meticulous
compositions, references to art history and
the depiction of children as more than mere
innocents, makes me believe that these
“orphans” really exist in the minds of these
fascinating, if not disturbing, humorists.
This exhibit is unusual, to say the least,
which the Arts Center paired with the holidaythemed, Own Your Own Art Show, running
concurrently. From speaking with some of the
gallery guards, I was not surprised to hear that
not all visitors were appreciative of the Orphans
series. However, the function of the best art is
not to make us feel warm and fuzzy inside, but
to provoke thought and discourse. I applaud the
Arts Center and Curator Karen Larkin for taking
a risk. Hopefully the Arts Center will continue
to challenge us with the unexpected.
The Corvo Brothers’ Orphans series is on view
in the Hoag Gallery of the Sangre de Cristo Arts
and Conference Center through January 24 and
will then be at Walker Fine Art in Denver from
February 27-April 1.
F
or another perspective on the Corvo
Brother’s by the poet Spiel, visit
PuebloPULP.com/blog
Almost before my legs were long enough
to reach the clutch on a tractor, I had to
cultivate cornrows all day long in hot
summer sun. It was tedious work for a
kid and I wished for a way out of it, so I
imagined an enormous eagle with claws
large enough to grasp me, then swoosh
me up into the Colorado sky...
pontificate • parlay • persuade • participate • preview • ponder
always
TM
the publication with the ever-changing acronym