RHEA CUTILLO

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My recent series - Battles for Peace - explores the fragility of our comfort as the state of the world changes rapidly. Ideas of imminent or sudden destruction is becoming more present in our societies and psyche. I pull imagery from World War II photographs as well as seemingly untouched landscapes around the world. My commentary imagines that there is no more surface of this earth - no more open space - that is uncontrolled by industry or political domination. Perhaps, also including our own inner selves.

About Of Being In Nothingness: These paintings are inspired by a few infrared photographs (of mine) as well as taken from memory. I was on top of a mountain south of Big Sur. It was a clear morning after a rainy day. We had hiked off the trail and camped in a clearing matted down by deers (presumably). The mountaintop we stood on put us at the same level as the clouds, and I could see the tops and bottoms with a dark line in between. I had never seen clouds at this perspective before. I aimed to paint these two images as a floating space in which to exist; a space with no ground and infinite sky. While on the same level as the clouds I could barely see the ocean below, and it looked as if the sky stretched in both directions. 

My recent series, Studies on Forgotten Spaces, also explores empty spaces expanding into the cerebral and the quest to find these inside our selves and in this world. I often imagine myself in these landscapes that stretch on forever. There is no wind, only fog and quiet. Even my own voice is blanketed by the circumstance of existence. This series is like forgotten memories, or lost childhood mental states - observant, nonjudgemental, curious about stillness and movement of time.

About FOG: This was the last canvas for [Lack of] Being and one that I worked over and over. Unlike most of the others this image was not premeditated and my vision formed as the painting progressed. The space it creates might seem ominous, but the forest is a place where I feel the most content. I grew up near the Appalachians - an ancient, lush, and nurturing setting. The woods were my exploratorium, and a source of imagination and inspiration. I would wander for hours not knowing where I was going, but never got lost; I always found a direction to go in and followed it whole-heartedly. 

About Immaterial Space: Two of the first paintings when working on this idea. Meant to act as expansions of space into our mind’s immaterial or emotional realms. A surreal world with no grounding and the sky seeming to push downwards; a pressure without physicality. 

About Existential Waiting: [Lack of] Being is about a personal defeat and a loss of self. It was created throughout my journey of re-establishing a grounding and sense of identity. This image symbolizes an emotional space when I was still looking for something from the outside to tell me what direction to take or where I belong. I was hoping for a sign or opportunity to place an anchor within my life. Again, there is a horizon line that extends infinitely, but is also infinitely unattainable. The imaginary landscape contains hard objects - black rocks of the same meaningless origin - that was inspired by desert landscapes along with those in Cui Xiuwen’s ‘Existential Emptiness’ series. The mailboxes are taken from a 35mm travel photograph stopping in Monroe, Utah.