Matthew Cusick
Matthew Cusick was born in New York City in 1970 and went
onto graduate from the Cooper Union with a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in
1993. His work has been exhibited internationally since 1996 including New York
City gallery shows at Andrew Kreps in Kent. In 2006 Cusick got a New York
Foundation of Arts fellowship, later in 2008 achieving a fellowship from The Bernis
Center for Contemporary Art. His work is held at places like the San Diego
Museum of Contemporary Art and the Progressive Art Collection. Cusick is a
multimedia artist, using paint and collage materials like maps, atlases, encyclopedias
and school textbooks to add more depth to his work. He is ‘known for warmly
coloured paintings’* which depict a lot of Southern California including the
celebrity culture. Much of his work expresses the darker side of American
culture and he develops a complicated enigma of our existence by adding collage
materials to his paintings.
In the piece, “Cat’s Wave”, Cusick uses inlaid maps and text
on a panel. There is a collection of pieces that depict the sea, completed in
2015. In “Cat’s Wave” there is one sea wave going diagonally across the panel
from the bottom left corner towards the top left which rolls to the right. There
is a white splash the forms towards the back of the wave. The colours of the
sea are provided by segments of maps that have been arranged to interlock and
form the wave. In the background, text is merging with the sea at approximately
a 175 degree angle towards the sea. This appears to be representing rain.
The colours that are provided by the maps are blue primary
shades, blue violet tertiary and blue green tertiary too. For example, colours
like greenish cyan, turquoise, aqua, teal and cerulean. This piece of work is
2D and has relatively strong variation light and shade between the colours to
depict the many reflections that bounce of the water. Although a flat surface
is used, the maps and text adds more depth to the piece. The maps are cut and
assembled together so that they interlock. The viewer’s eye rolls with the wave
as the eye is attracted to the lighter blue shades along the middle of the
piece which leads to the wave.
Using maps expands the limits of a representational painting,
creating a more complex form of existence. Cusick’s pieces provide a
geographical and historical timeline within the image. I think this piece
creates a motion of being lost as the sea is choppy and so presents confusion
and disorientation. The rough sea displays how the weather is unpredictable,
mirroring the path of our lives. I believe that Cusick is trying to portray how
there is more that encapsulates us than just our achievements, like our history
and our ventures. However, he could be trying to reveal using maps that people shouldn’t
be so individualistic and closed-minded as he believes that travelling the
world opens the mind to opportunity and current social affairs. I also think
the text that appears like rain could represent the newspapers and the sea, the
public. As the newspapers fuels the public to behave in a certain way and
believe certain values about the world, but in effect this leads the public
into confusion and turmoil which I represented by the choppy wave.
I have been influenced by Cusick to use collage and
interlock images as he does. Each of the sections that form the way reminded me
of camouflage shapes and so I began to look at my Dad’s service in the
military. I have used maps and other materials like photographs to create
objects like trousers. I was inspired to try creating tonal representation by
adding collage to objects such as bottles. Cusick has also inspired me to look
at the deeper meaning behind my developments and so I have started looking at
ways to portray as soldier’s identity and how the country create a level of anonymity
in our troops.
*www.artsy.net/artist/matthew-cusick
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