NYAB Event - Daphne Arthur "Beyond Boundaries"

Daphne Arthur "Beyond Boundaries"

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Arthur's work, which analyzes archetypes of society and culture through a deconstructive lens, can be described as a rebellion or resistance to the traditional articulation of space-related art and its subjects and themes. The generic figures in her analysis express a subversive reaction to generally accepted or received points of view on sexual mores, religious expression, and cultural identity. Arthur's characters exist in a fictional and fantastic world in which their gestures are playful and reflect a freedom from day-to-day constraints that the artist suggests are a result, at least in part, of our daily lives being "surveilled and governed."

Complementing Arthur's exploration of complex psychological spaces where emotions, feelings, familiar experiences, and the assimilation of vast quantities of personal information are in constant flux, is her manipulation of traditional views of politicized space. By fusing the two-dimensional with the three-dimensional, she defies the typical separations between painting and sculpture, and between these two disciplines and drawing, collage, and photography, choosing instead to immerse the viewer in a fluid, shifting holistic environment that emphasizes context over form.

In confronting the expansive issues of social and cultural identity, Arthur's method is still very personal. Her Venezuelan and Trinidadian heritage certainly has contributed to her focus on identity, yet she eschews labels and rejects cultural categorizations. She views both as precursors to the stereotyping of processes, identities, religions, and life styles, which in turn limit, narrow, and flatten the multi-faceted complexities we all intrinsically possess.

Preferring to experience the world through "an uncensored scope," Arthur chooses to view people and their experiences not through limiting comparisons but rather in terms of a relative purity that does not assume or dictate a path that must be followed. Her art asks us to ask ourselves what it means to be human, posing the question and challenging us to find our own answers.