I first became acquainted with the work of Simon Edmondson about five years ago at Gallery Ditesheim in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, and his painterly post-apocalyptic interiors have occupied my dreams ever since. Edmondson's decaying libraries, salons, and studies appear to be inhabited by the ghosts of intellectuals.
These paintings read as both portrait and environment. The spaces carry such personality and individuality that they may be seen as human--each room has led a full life. On the other hand, the shear scale of each work is overwhelming and causes the viewer to be swallowed up by the world of the painting--the veiwer is not just looking at the painting, but is inside it. To truly experience an Edmondson painting you must completely surrender to the work and allow your thoughts to follow whole-heartly where the painting leads. The space you will enter is impossibly powerful.
2 comments:
funny enough the idea of impressionism comes to mind. up close each object and background is near undefined...but illuminated, as you said, like ghosts and souls.
from a far you develop a much different opinion of the landscape, blurred figures combine and swirl. it is everything and nothing simultaneously, proud but morbidly alone...like a sick dying regal.
love, goldberg
the sarah variety, i mean. i used my dad's name for safety :p
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