The Line of Sight or Axis Line is the imaginary line between an observer, spectator, or target. In communication, the line of sight is the direct path from a transmitter to the receiver. In this time of digitization and data accumulation, how are images and messages received and deployed when a clear line of sight is regularly obstructed and manipulated? An image or other visual artwork becomes an object of attention necessary for viewer engagement to produce affect. The ability of works of art to generate nebulous concepts of affect is rooted in the contemporary understanding of the audience and the artist. How do artists negotiate the relationship between maker and viewer? What occurs when that engagement becomes obscured? What strategies do image makers utilize to retain agency? How are subjectivity and knowledge formed without a clear line of sight?
The group exhibition brings together four artists working in diverse media but connected by their interest in the intersection of history and visual culture. Accessing personal and collective memory, they bring complex underrepresented narratives relating to their biography and contemporary socio-political concerns. The artist and curator, Jon Cuyson, initiated the underlying idea of the group’s intersecting reflections. “One of the discoveries I made during lockdown was my heightened awareness of creative ideas, as our exposure and reception to data increased but also questioned. I began to reflect on our personal and shared limitations as I examined my artistic concerns triggered by the isolation and access to a tidal wave of information. How do I process the unprocessable? How are these dynamics related to time and conflict? Informed by this line of inquiry, through virtual messages, and meetings, the artists formed the ideas behind the works in the exhibition.
Curational notes by Jon Cuyson
Galleria Duemila presents the exhibition Line of Sight with works from Nice Buenaventura, Karl Castro, Jon Cuyson, and Eric Ramos Guerrero, curated by Jon Cuyson.