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Statement

My work applies to the concept of nature/culture, the sublime, the most beautiful and the dangerous.

It has a reference to painting, early photography(daguerreotypes), microscopic photography and the virus world.

Throughout my work I had an interest in combining two elements-painting and photography.

Paint because of its own nature is abstract. Photography because of its window of believability.

The work oscillates between this dual platform of painting and photography. Using monoprint gives me the tool to arrive at this platform. Ink and plate, similar to early photography is inherent in the production of the work. Historically monoprinting has been used by painters as a study before they execute their main piece. In my work the monoprint is the work. The work lies in the psychology of production. Painting on plate without planning the work in advance and with no subject in front of me has the nature of Abstract Expressionism.

The work relies on memory and subconscious . The paintings become familiar to the viewer in that they have seen the elements before . The work can be traceable to things similar in nature but that never adds or subtracts from what they are as paintings. My work is process driven. Printing removes the hand of the painter being always in the work. In the final stage when it goes under the press it gives the "chance" to play a role in the production of the work. Monochrome (Sepia) adds to the duration of the piece, it gives the viewer more flexibility and fluidity to view the work.

In the early period of my work (1995-see slides) there were more details in its parts. In the recent works the subject is more removed and the picture plane moving, like a camera it is shifting its position.

There is no narrative, each piece is pure abstraction , the narrative is the whole body of the works.

Each piece is dated and numbered in the back according to the sequence the work was produced .This is a tool for me to trace the works back to which one came fist for my own indexing and editing. All works are untitled .

Oshin Saginian

November 15, 1996