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Part, 2016. Oil on canvas. 24 x 20 inches. Courtesy of Patron, Chicago.
Flute, detail
Tippit offers cues of information, and in works on paper the unworked material itself can have formal significance. Here it serves as both candle and wick, containing the darkness illuminated by the flame; yet the undulating form (in gray ink) surrounding the flame can also be read as a figure, deepening the potential readings for the image.
The corporal shape, as with the flame motif, is recurrent in Tippit’s work–to which we might reference her earlier painting, Part, (pictured); or Shriek, a work on paper. Each with its own narrative potential, they embody a radical strangeness that runs current-like through Tippit’s practice.
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"I like an image that unfurls again and again and again."
The typical platemark, one of the most defining elements of Intaglio prints, is absent, which aligns Flute to the compositional elegance of Tippit’s paintings. And so we can also think of the uninterrupted shape in Flute as a shield, a form of protection that is itself protected. As Tippit has said, “I like an image that unfurls again and again and again.”
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Alice Tippit: Flute, 2024
Past viewing_room
