Thanks to Christopher Young for an insightful review!

Vicki Smith, Softly Goes the Day, Bau-Xi Gallery

photo 5

The painting depicts an underwater image of a swimmer, who’s head is still above water, and the inverse reflection is skewed vertically upward at the waterline. What I find interesting is that it is the water that distorts light and how we see things, and yet from a fully submerged vantage point, it becomes everything else outside the water that is twisted and warped. The placement is interesting too, as clearly the gallery wants to give the piece prominence by making it the single outside facing spot for pedestrians walking by to see. But also how it breaks the symmetry and balance of the architecture, the clean lines and right angles of the window and brick are completely severed by this skewered and awkwardly organic image. It indicates that inside these walls is a place of discontinuity and free-formed expression which is antithetical to the rigidity of the surrounding urban sprawl.

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