Death of a Dream: The Magnificent Failure of our Forefathers
May 16th - June 13th 2009
Death of a Dream, 2009, acrylic on wood, 10 x 24 inches
Alena Rudolph’Äôs work reflects that certain intimacy between landscape and solitude. The quietness of being alone within an encapsulated glimpse of time allows for the breathing in of history as it coincides quietly with the present. In Death of a Dream, Rudolph exhibits acrylic paintings on hardwood supports, on which parts of the wood grain is left unpainted as a means to the pictoral space. This exhibit also consists of two window installations, that continue the same theme.
The paramount focus of her newest body of work concentrates on the historical elements and the leftovers of human migration. The gradual demise of structures discarded during rough patches following the failures of homesteading. ¬ÝBarns, feed shacks, houses, fencing and graves in various states of arrested decay, abandoned as greater fortunes were sought’Ķ or maybe not.
Interchangeably, dusk and dawn have a way of cloaking shapes to create dramatic silhouettes, which in turn evoke vivid contrast to frame a moment through saturation of color and sparseness of content. ¬ÝThere is a familiarity in this sentimental moment, an allowance, almost, to draw the attention to a focal point elsewhere’Ķ somewhere vibrant, between the branches and past the hills, beyond vast landscapes towards incoming storms and rolling Middle-American skies, represented by the natural whorls of the hardwoods.
Rudolph was born in Los Angeles in 1974. ¬ÝThe timing of her initial arrival to San Francisco coincided with the nationally recognized ’ÄúMission School’Äù movement of the late nineties; gaining her a self-taught style entrance into Bay Area exhibits from 1996 through the present. ¬ÝLaunching opportunities continentally and internationally, as well as with several notable publications.