featured in the viewing room:  Natasha Karpinskaia
unearthed

september 19 - November 1, 2015

Monotype and pencil on paper
Paper size - 22" x 15", Image size 12" x 12", $575

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To unearth is to uncover, stumble upon, and bring something to light. It can also signify discovering something hidden, lost, or kept secret by searching. One might unearth plenty of things including the truth.

An artist can be compared to an archaeologist, or an excavator searching for something hidden, yet undiscovered that might lead to certain understanding, acquiring knowledge, etc.

Unearthed consists of 10 -11 works on paper. They have a monotype base and a colored pencil drawing on top. They are "unearthed" in both the literal and figurative meaning of the word. They might resemble an excavation site yet their significance can aspire to go beyond that.

Once I started working on this project, I stumbled upon a poem that might serve as yet another interpretation of unearthed.

Unearthed

poems get unearthed
from the dirt in which they lie
they don't get grown or birthed 
and they don't fall from the sky
under soil and under sand
interred and undiscovered 
buried deep within the land
dormant until recovered
from their subterranean caves
and dank cold catacombs
exhumed from shallow graves
and robbed from ruined tombs
some poems come intact
and some come disassembled
and the poets piece them back 
into something that resembles
the thing that they're fighting 
for eternity to be
poetry is not writing
it's archaeology
and these things you have found
they are not your creation
they just came from the ground
they are an excavation
the strangest artefacts
withered and decayed
you just repaired the cracks
and then your claims got made
adding your false testimony
your name, to show you own it
and I don't disagree
but nor do I condone it
they're the thoughts of the undead
they're not your history 
and how they got into your head
will remain a mystery

Ian Woods
Jun 25, 2015