The University Center Art Gallery is proud to present: UM Alumnus Lily Kip's exhibit TOWNSPEOPLE.
Artists Statement: TOWNSPEOPLE is a painting project about interpersonal behavior in the context of social dependency. Community is nothing but a series of relationships—each of us are discrete nodes in a complex social web. Our connections to friends, family, and lovers are individual as well as interlocking, creating chains of connection and concentric circles of belonging. My paintings are close proximity renderings of my own relationships, distilled into split-second exchanges. I am fascinated by the intricacies of emotion and communication which construct our social worlds. How do we look at each other? What choices do we make to connect? Why do we avoid connecting? Why is it so hard to love other people well? Though the figures in the images are strangers to the audience, these images function as reference points for the viewer’s own relational quandaries. Each of these multi-panel paintings have been created from film photos taken by me of my intimate friends. These triptychs and diptychs intend not only to represent an animate view of a scene, but also suggest that all interpersonal relationships occur in the context of multiple perspectives. This show suggests the literary device of the "omniscient narrator," in which the viewer can inhabit different points of view.
Questions? UCArtGallery@mso.umt.edu
