MFA VISUAL ART

Banerjee

Word and image, intellect and emotion, academic thought and physical labor – whether considered as contrasts, opposites, or adversaries, these properties are often juxtaposed against one another to reveal weakness or expose vulnerabilities. Existing at the intersections of Jungian personality archetypes, philosophy, literature, and art, the works in the logic of tenderness challenge the viewer to consider how these opposites might work with rather than against one another to produce meaning and symbiosis. Although Banerjee himself regards his writings as philosophical theories or propositions, their material density encourages us as viewers to contemplate their visual properties, to see words as tangible things, to appreciate the emotional in the intellectual, and to venerate thought as labor and labor as thought. Based on the philosophical work of the artist and intimate intellectual conversations between two friends, the texts seen in the logic of tenderness exploit the potential of the visual to reveal layers of meaning that are often hidden in the written word.

Functioning similarly to tone, facial expression, or body language in spoken language, here the text’s materiality adds layers of potential non-linguistic sense. Barely singed edges cut out of mulberry paper give tangible evidence of cognitive energy while leaving traces of the delicate yet demanding physical process of creating the work. Gauzy cutout letters are tenuously attached to the printed words, reminding us of the labor that is needed to prune our thoughts for clarity, or entreating us to consider the meaning behind what is unwritten. Glass letters submerged in water give the illusion of weightless bubbles, yet they sink like weighty emotions too difficult to parse.

The logic of tenderness culminates with a video piece that cannot easily be viewed in isolation from the other works in the gallery. The viewer’s chosen position might mean watching while also appreciating the bright blue and red color fields on the adjacent wall or glimpsing the moving images through the water and glass. It is an exceptional reminder of the artist’s interest in abstraction density – pushing the mind to absorb as many layers of meaning as possible – and the appeal of ideas that shift, adapt, and change.

— Rachel Steele, OSU Department of History of Art, PhD Student

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