What is it about that painting? Tata’s Stare by Xuebing Du
Spending time in galleries for me includes a lot of staring at paintings that I’m drawn to and wondering why I like them. Less just enjoying it and more analysing why. I’m sure that’s not just me. Hence why I’m going to share some thoughts about some paintings I’ve stared at before.
I’m no art critic. In fact if I have any regrets, one might be that I didn’t do art history at university. But hey maybe I wasn’t ready. After I got told off for tracing in year eight art, art probably wasn’t destined for my academic agenda. I definitely liked standing and staring at paintings even then though. So I may not discuss the paint-strokes or use of oils, or what year it was painted and how it comments on such and such. I’m more interested in how it makes me feel. And in turn interested in if you agree.
First up.
Something I’ve framed. And it’s not a painting. It’s a photograph. But I did a double take when it arrived on my table because I had to check that it was in fact a photograph. There’s so much about it that made me think it couldn’t be. I had even seen the image before, but only a tiny sized one on a spreadsheet. Seeing it in A3 size, a wow popped into my head when I peeled back the tissue paper. That expanding warm feeling that wow is.
It’s actually annoying to see it on the page here. Because it’s wow but it’s not as wow as when I saw it in real life. Up close and in person, it’s iridescent. The fur looks so real that it looks fake. And so the staring continued for a while because I was trying to work out the truth of it.
Perhaps that’s what the artist is aiming for. They knew we would try to work out the truth of it and so purposefully played with the reality. The closeness of the shot is confusing, we are seeing the face but not the whole face so it takes a second to confirm in the mind that it’s a cat. The angle also plays tricks, the eyes seeming at first glance to differ in size and so leading us to the brightness and stare of the left eye, sending our focus off kilter, again I questioned what it was and if it was real. And so for even longer I stare, I ask questions, I think more deeply about what it is that makes this photograph keep me there.
The light. I could end there. The light is perhaps its essence. Light is something I’ve noticed us humans, aside from needing, notice, crave and live for. We chase it, we play with it in shadows, we capture and wonder at it in our own photos. The light not only gives it the iridescence but it creates a setting; my mind started to wander outside of the shot, it lead me to imagine the cat sun bathing, a relaxed pose and heavy breathing. It gives this image its energy.
I would like art surrounding me that makes me smile or breathe more deeply or say wow. And this one does all three.
This work is called Tata’s Stare and is by Xuebing Du. It can be purchased through Darklight Art
From the Darklight website: “Xuebing Du’s art practise portrays diverse elements of the natural world: deserts, gardens, flowers & more recently, cats ;). Pictured here, her cat Tata with its pearlescent fur coat bathed in sunlight, reposes in a moment of calm.”
