GERALD GUTHRIE
2024

My conceptual pursuits center on the inexplicable.

I find the most ubiquitous and most interesting questions are those that can never be answered. Enigmas are woven into the fabric of our culture and become the basis for such uniquely human pursuits as religion, ethics, philosophy, politics, science, and art. For many, myself included, the very act of inquiry is a sublime process.

My work attempts to identify and exemplify the absurdity of commonly held belief and everyday ritual. I present scenes of familiarity that contrast with unexplainable situations, finding the unfamiliar within the familiar, and providing an unknowable mystery.

Our lives are not logically linear, there is seldom closure, and rarely is there a clear-cut answer to life’s next critical issue. These situations often lead to frustration, but being on the edge of decision is more stimulating, and maybe more meaningful, than being in a state of retrospection. People hope to avoid quandaries, but they enable us to grow and adapt to life. It is this feeling that I wish to evoke in my work.

Just as I avoid didacticism, I wish to guide viewers toward considered narratives. It is as if I am offering the middle chapter of a kind of book that requires others to complete the beginning and end chapters. There is no right or wrong to this activity and everyone’s solution must be different.

Commonplace domestic interiors become “deja vu” spaces, along with a false sense of security. Objects assimilate human qualities, paralleling our distinctive quirks and foibles. Symbols may only symbolize symbols, but they do imply great meaning and importance. A sense of threat seems imminent, but never really materializes. Humor is present, but it is the humor of nervous laughter, intriguing yet slightly discomforting. Some aspects of these veritable enigmas make total sense while others do not.

Life unfolds illogically, and like in poetry, there are as many interpretations as there are readers; none totally correct, none totally incorrect, all valid in that the actual search for personal understanding becomes the creative act.

Bewilderment can function as a valid aesthetic experience.