Dale Lewis
78 3/4 x 66 7/8 in
Horizon, a portrait of a family friend who took her own life, places its subject underground, solidified between many layers of earth. With its double eyebrows and placid expression, her face echoes Japanese Noh masks, whilst the greyish tone of her skin and yellow teeth suggest the inevitable process of decay after death. Labeled letters reference international soil classification codes - bedrock, parent rock, subsoil - and reflect the artist’s horticultural studies. Although this portrait is particular to the person it depicts, Lewis states that the work ‘can also be seen as an abstract landscape, or horizon, to which collectively - as groups or individuals, dead or alive, as organic matter - we’re all part of the layering of time.’

