Resurface
Row upon row of overlapping small chairs furnish Dave Alcon’s artistic creations – an insistent pattern that he continues to use as the basis for various themes and circumstantial musings. In Resurface, not only is the artist’s iconographic signature prevalent, but the chair itself transforms into a focal subject, magnified in size and significance, in an acknowledging nod to the material seats and the seemingly limiting situations many of us have found ourselves in due to the pandemic.
As a consequence of the quarantines, the way we live and work has drastically altered, ‘new normals’ replacing past standards, unsettling the stability of the future. For many, this has meant engaging with the rest of the world from the comfort or confinement – depending on how one sees it – of home. For others, this has led to the loss of livelihood or a halt in progress. Yet despite imposed distances and adverse conditions, those unwilling to let the limits define them have discovered opportunities for creativity and connection, viewing this uncertain interim as a chance to flourish and thrive, to cultivate new hobbies or to be more present in their lives.
The show’s artworks depict chairs diverse in form or colour, representing such situations and roles brought about by the pandemic. While notable details differentiate the objects from one another, they also share similar elements, isolated against a dark background scattered with gold dots: humanity in the same void, counting on the same hopes. With its dual definition, the word resurface can mean ‘to provide with a new or fresh surface’ or ‘to come again to the surface’. Alcon’s persistent attempts to work with the chair, a simple form and symbolic subject matter, reflect current actions being taken in the face of inevitable change and subsequent challenges. What these paintings reveal is a test – and a testament – of a person’s ability to seek and find reformation in a difficult, but not defeating, moment.
written by Jem Chua
