“Mall of America”, 2004, gouache on paper, 38 by 50 inches.
Thought:
Amy Chan paints the universe you might find in the imagination of an especially nervous video game designer — as if Philip Guston had somehow been made to serve as art director for Super Mario Bros. 2. In her work, the familiar surroundings of suburban America fracture into isolated islands separated by oceans of neutral space. With a running start you might be able to leap from one strip mall franchise to the next, but you’d probably need to be playing as Princess.
While her vertiginous way with architecture and landscape may also recall Japanese animation director Hayao Miyazaki (particularly 1986’s air-faring fantasy, Castle in the Sky), Chan’s heights imply falling much more clearly than flying. Buildings and land masses both threaten to slump down around us at any moment in a fit of Gustonian shlubbiness.
Chan also has a sharp eye for the portion of the color palette shared between Mario backgrounds and suburban surroundings; her paintings are mostly flat greens, muted browns, and dull grays punctuated by the occasional rich red and golden yellow. She applies this palette with a thin scrubby facture that is a far cry from the shiny perfection or physical insubstantiality that are the hallmarks of so much video game inspired art1.
This is an interesting little friction point Chan’s found between the most abstract concerns of mid-century High Modern painting and the aesthetic of an ascendant form of adolescent pop culture.
Artist’s Statement:
My paintings use humor and appropriated imagery to convey the loneliness of the modern American landscape. My painting style is influenced by cartoon backdrops and decorative pattern, which gives the work an orderly yet fantastical quality. The combining of disparate imagery relates directly to my experience growing up in Connecticut, where nature, suburban development and historical remains closely crowd each other, but seldom mix.
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Links:
“Lullaby Land”, 2004, gouache on paper, 30 by 44 inches.
Tagged: amy, chan, painting, art, nintendo, super, mario, bros, landscape, surburban, guston, miyazaki