Descrizione Opera / Biografia
This body of work entitled Afterthoughts is inspired by brief moments of locking eyes with others and the afterthoughts that follow. This experience is coming from a personal perspective, but also encompasses a more widespread evolutionary and social experience that occurs within us all. I briefly wonder about the people in these moments; what is their life like? Would we get along? I wonder if they have the same interactional experience. Though it may come across as awkward, it’s an essential human trait that has roots in the survival of a species.
The blurring and distortion of the faces references a barrier of protection that goes up in social situations. It is a necessary yet mysterious element of interaction that I find alluring and at times frustrating. These are constructed out of necessity to interact comfortably, yet at times they feel like an obstruction. Silkscreened onto these prints is a transparent, drawn mark. These vestiges of the written mark have a relation to the figure as an internal questioning, wondering, and the constant search for meaning within moments of connection. We can never know the true perspective of others and we can only get close to deciphering and generalizing their experience, however the act of wondering will always be present and perhaps breaking through the barrier of thought can reveal something essential and liberating.
Ryan Farley is an emerging artist currently working towards a MFA in Printmaking within the School Of Art, Architecture and Design at Indiana University, Bloomington. He is an Associate Instructor of printmaking and has served as the research, teaching, and printing assistant to the head of printmaking at Indiana University. His artworks have exhibited both nationally and internationally. Guided by his experiences and a multifaceted study of human connection, his artworks bring awareness to and explore manifestations of interpersonal connectivity and their implications in the greater human experience.
