March 01, 2007
A WOMAN'S REACH
A Woman's Reach. Digital Photocollage and Collage. 38" wide. © 2007 by King & du Bois
Detail here.
by Catherine King
This collage took its title from a poem by Robert Browning: “Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for?” Seeing as the photograph is of my hand, though, Jerome and I decided to paraphrase the line.
The online search engine tells us that Browning's words suggest that, to achieve anything worthwhile, a person should attempt even those things that may turn out to be impossible.
While not untrue, I have more possible interpretations as applied to King & du Bois' latest piece.
This piece is about extending oneself by sheer will, as in morphing, changing oneself however necessary in order to accomplish, let's say, a task that one has set for oneself. It's about reaching farther than is ordinarily possible, or doing whatever it takes, because one refuses to accept limits.
So it's also quintessentially human, in that it's about the age-old desire to make a mark, to have some kind of an impact. It expresses the attempt of one soul to reach out, and in doing so to try one's hardest both to contribute and to communicate.
The image is timelessly mysterious, like those self-portrait handprints made by our cave-dwelling ancestors. All they left is proof that they, too, tried to touch their surroundings . . .
But, on the other hand, we all know that our efforts inevitably lead to unifying with our surroundings. We disperse and melt until there's nothing left.
The image is also postmodern -- it refers to fractals, of which everything is made, we now know. Like a tree, with fingers like leaves, the hand's development is always outward, upward, forward, making contact, solving problems, and creating beauty.
Posted by Jerome at March 1, 2007 06:18 PM | TrackBack