Two paintings by Cathy Lees also portray the bedroom as an arena where human needs and emotions are played out. Here, it is implied and is borne out by the title, the bedroom is a place of sexual conquest. A man in a bathrobe, smoking a cigarette, stands before a reclining nude woman. The undulating brushwork echoes the soft folds of the pillow, but does it invoke comfort?Īnother painting by Fink, the very early (1980) Bacchus and Ariadne, a different kind of story is being told. Monumental in size, this painting of the humble bedroom accessory elevates its subject to an iconic status. The work conveys a sense of things coming together and pulling apart at the same instant, like a dream state where nothing is fixed and everything is almost within reach.Īaron Fink’s Pillow, a work never before exhibited, is likewise an object laden with meaning. The image is broken down into facets of color, planes and brushstrokes to the point where the figure and the bed become one. In her painting Faldum, Stephanie Pierce also portrays an elusive figure on a bed. Is it human or ghost? In these images, where domestic comfort is turned upside down, “the idea of hominess,” as Avidor puts it, “crumbles apart.” In her painting In Bed a conical “head” sticks out from under the covers. In Cot a spare bed in a dark room with the sheet turned down hardly seems welcoming. Shira Avidor portrays beds both empty and occupied by elusive figures.
For some of these artists the bed itself is the focus-suggesting the human presence in its absence or inviting us in and offering us a chance to rest or dream. In some cases the bedroom is a place of respite from the world and in others it is a place of isolation or conflict. In this exhibition, eight different artists address the bed or bedroom as an arena where stories, states of mind, and human drama play themselves out. The story became the threshold between wakefulness and dreaming.
Tucked in our beds, these narratives floated in our imaginations as we drifted off to sleep. We all have memories of being read stories as children.
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