For the exhibition Plattform22, Mariana Tilly presents an installation of three self-portrait paintings entitled HITTING IN THE MATERIAL WORLD. As the title suggests, the artist thematizes the narration of a moment, a description of a feeling rather than a representation of herself. The title of the series refers to the name of George Harrison’s 1973 album Living in the material world and the subsequent 2011 documentary film about his life, directed by Scorsese. The poster for the documentary film shows a portrait of the young Harrison, underwater from the shoulders down. Likewise, in the painting on the left, the artist seems to be immersed not in water but in a deep darkness, softly illuminated by moonlight. The luminescence that reminds us of the paintings of Nina Childress, whom Tilly admires and took as inspiration. Similarly, in the painting on the right, a central element is the artificial light that gives a sense of warmth. Perhaps it narrates a summer sunset, a material and artifactual world outside of the painting, in which the subject’s gaze rests.
It is as if in this series the artist were telling us about an extra-bodily experience, in which she finds herself outside of her clothes, above of her body and observing herself, becoming more aware than ever of her being in the world. It is a material world that bears the weight of history, of traditions and religions, rules of play and constructions of gender and inequalities of power and colonial history.
In fact, the painting on the ground increases this idea of distancing oneself and reflecting on one’s role in society. A zoom out from one’s microcosm to get a view of the macrocosm. What we see is a female suit laying on a bed, almost as a kind of official uniform, a sign of power, a sign of work, a sign of adaptation and perhaps of masculinity (whatever that means). Mariana Tilly does not have the answer to how best to deal with a society built by oppressive paternalistic systems, but she does lead us to reflect on what it means to live in this material world and that she, as a young female artist, must sometimes wear a uniform to show her point of view.
Translation: Plattform team
Photo credits: Guadalupe Ruiz