jodi tan—
SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS: THE RHETORIC OF ABSTRACTION
Jodi’s experiments with shapes and colour are explorations of form that avoid regulation, and move away from normative perceptions of what binds a constitutionally sound ‘aesthetic’ or ‘image’. Jodi’s process reminds me almost of a Pac-man, with an almost mechanical repeating of fixed steps until hitting a wall, after which making a 90 degree left or right turn, and continuing onward in a new direction. The figurative ‘wall’ is understood by me to be any imposition on a more open-ended understanding to form—anything that creates rigidity. For example, choosing to cross-stitch on a circle base, instead of a square – because cross-stitches are ‘square’ in themselves; Using the outline of stickers, instead of the sticker themselves; Using fashion photography as inspiration but using the shapes and patterns on clothes as inspiration for ‘skin’ instead. The artist almost turns her back on what seems ‘natural’ to aesthetic and beauty. With no desired or planned outcome, her process feels like walking into a tunnel with no idea of the route, or outcome. Yet somehow over years of practice, Jodi has acquired a touch of knowing which shapes, forms and colours ‘go together’, and the outcome is somewhat beautiful.
She deflates notions of the ‘form’ by choosing to source inspiration for shapes from vernacular, even lowbrow, pop culture icons like the Powerpuff Girls or Hello Kitty— my favourite choice is Spongebob Squarepants, a reference to a shape himself.
In Looking For Space, she explores two things: how to portray depth in a space, and how to depict still life. From that point, the work departed from those missions altogether and became exercises in repetition and layers, to see where it would end up. Finally that process became a question of medium – where Jodi began to want a bigger challenge, one that would require more time than instant processes like cutting, pasting, layering, printing. The new constraints gave birth to new possibilities in manipulation and also rule-breaking or rebelliousness. This contrast of rule and disorder creates a harmonious balance in her work when the eye rests long enough on it.
In fact, she denies the viewer any ‘sense’ or ‘way of seeing’, and moves away from formulaic ideas about perceiving form and value. It isn’t about how form is derived, nor does the artist have one fixed process and reason; and value isn’t only constituted from how much time was spent creating such images. Jodi’s work seems to collapse pillars of beauty and meaning in a post-modernist approach to art. Like most contemporary artists, she attempts to break free from history.
her website