Erased Tiger (lacuna series p. 1)
The less any thing is, the less we know it: how invisible, how unintelligible a thing then, is this Nothing. John Donne, Sermons.
I spent one summer in a studio space in Nanji meticulously erasing drawings of tigers. I’m aware of the presence of artists that anchor this enterprise in a genealogy of ideas and events that have to do with erasing, removal or negation in all its permutations. Consider for example the Dora Bruder shaped void that moves through Modiano´s book. My erased tigers belong to a series of works in which I tried to explore this dynamic presence of absence - a deliberate lacuna at the centre of each work. Different modalities of lacunae were presented in other mediums in which this absence was manifest to different degrees. However, this particular work pivots on a relationship between the image and the title that puts the absence forward in a direct propositional statement. This submission to language in a work that incorporates the most feral of animals only emphasises the fastidious nature of the act of diligent erasure. It is in stark contrast with how they can tear our little frames to shreds in an act of profound annihilation should we ever have a real encounter with a tiger.
What can we throw at this haunting stillness? What of our dreams and wishes is it possible to project onto a tiger shaped vacancy that will match its vitality and otherness? Stanislav Boca, Birds Falling out of Trees