Lawrence University- Acrylic on paper 12×12Door County tree – Acrylic on paper 44×44Coast – Acrylic on paper 10×12 Door County landscape – Acrylic on canvas 44×64Fish Creek-Acrylic on paper 30×22 Landscape – Acrylic on paper 20×25Landscape 4 (Private collection)Door County Rocks 22- Watercolor-11×15Door County Landscape 10- Watercolor 13×17Landscape – Acrylic on paper 20×25Landscape 3- Acrylic on canvas 44×62Lake Michigan – Acrylic on canvas 44×64 (Private collection)Door County coast-Acrylic on canvas-27×27Landscape 5- Acrylic on paper 20×25Bjorklunden 2 – Acrylic on paper 10×12Door County Rocks 4 Watercolor-11×15Door Co Landscape 2 (Private collection)Door County coast-Acrylic on canvas-27×27Door County Landscape 9- Watercolor 13×17 Coast (2) – Acrylic on paper 44×44 (Private Collection)Bjorklunden – Acrylic on canvas 44×64Door County Landscape 11- Watercolor 13×17Door County Landscape 6- Watercolor 13×17Winter 2 (Private collection)Ephraim 2 -Acrylic on paper 10×12 Door County Landscape 8- Watercolor 13×17 Door County Landscape 4- Watercolor 13×17 Winter – Acrylic on canvas 44×64Landscape 5- Acrylic on canvas 48×48 Landscape 3(b)- Acrylic on paper 20×25Door County landscape – Acrylic on canvas 44×64 Door County Landscape 7- Watercolor 13×17Door County Landscape 5- Watercolor 13×17Door County Landscape 3- Watercolor 13×17Door County Landscape 2- Watercolor 13×17Landscape 7- Acrylic on paper 20×25 The series of landscapes from the area around the shores of Lake Michigan, in Door County, Wisconsin, depict a referential space, while making evident the processes that construct the paintings.
The images explore the possibility of a space that indicates the illusion of a three-dimensional realm, with a background and a foreground. They also call attention to the surface of the works as textured and two-dimensional. Tension arises through the juxtaposition of a surface that denounces its own two-dimensionality, while hinting at the illusion of depth in traditional landscape painting.
In addition to playing with this 3D vs.2D tension, the landscapes want to place the space within the subjectivity of the individual, rather than as a thing “out there.” According to Kant, space and time are the two subjective means by which the individual knows the world. Space originates, then, not in an external realm but in the individual’s subjectivity. As such, space can become more of a symbol charged with subjective meanings than a faithful representation of reality.
As the notions of subjectivity and of the subject were challenged by post-structuralist ideas in the late twentieth century, this landscape series wants to propose a rethinking of visual space and a new awareness of its meanings and limitations. Thus, the landscapes become, in Umberto Eco’s words, “epistemological metaphors,” aiming at a more direct and immediate access to the world they depict and to the ways in which it is depicted.
Gustavo Fares 