The Green Suite Case @ RedHead Gallery: A Review
Memory, history, visual culture, gaze, unearthing, perspective, immigration, witnessing, documentation
The Green Suitcase displays memory, an unearthing of familial history through re-presentations of old photographs, now medium-scale oil paintings. The green luggage immigrated to Canada in 1996 with Luca and his mother, only to be unearthed and studied in recent times. Its contents filled the suitcase with old photographs of family and scenes of Romania, with frequent appearances of Luca’s grandfather. His grandfather became the muse behind this body of work as he reflects on his classified life through these photographs. Luca illustrates his grandfather’s duty as a detector of spies, serving the Romanian Communist Regime through the 50s-70s. His personal history took to Luca and subliminally found its way through each painting. In that, this collection serves as a visual articulation of his grandfather’s double life and subsequent experiences. Through such recollection of memory and history, much perspective is considered, gesturing a gaze for viewers to contemplate as they tour the exhibition. This exchange between memory and gaze promotes perspective and grants the viewer behind the lens in his grandfather’s place. The key terms above gesture an overarching theme, as they work in constant dialogue with each other throughout the exhibition.
Such symbiosis can aid the viewer in understanding each painting, in addition to the cumulative body of work overall. Some key works I believe articulate narrative with high distinction are One Bread, One Party, Cabal, and Objectives of Interest. One Bread, One Party illustrates a familiar picnic scene, comprised of eight figures upon a blue sheet that fills the lower portion of the canvas. He paints with deliberate focus here, with a technique that looks adjacent to film; creating faces clear and sharp, while others half focused and almost blurry- an important detail that is worth the mention. Cabal brings the viewer into a dinner scene, again employing the gestured technique of deliberate focus and blurring of a figure. The scene is lively and illuminated by glares of light upon glasses. Adjacent to Cabal sits Objectives of Interest, an observing outdoor scene of three suited men in conversation. The painting has markings, intentionally done to replicate such markings on the original reference photo. Markings specifically around the figures, circled head, an ‘X’and scribble- provokes curiosity in viewers, as to why and what each marking reveals about the scene. Luca replicates photos with great technique, through sharp features in focused faces or blurred and smooth movement, the viewer becomes immersed in the narrative with curiosity and appreciation for Luca’s creative liberties.
Curatorially speaking, this exhibition is quite unique as it is self-curated by the artist as directed by the member’s policy at Redhead. I found it generally well organized, and spacing was consistent with optimal wall space for the larger works. I believe the exhibition did its job in creating a narrative that spoke through the presented works, being well supported by the curatorial text provided and the organization of the works.
Bib.
“The Green Suitcase - Bogdan Luca.” Red Head Gallery, 2023. https://www.redheadgallery.org/the-green-suitcase.