Mark Bradford does the abstract genre justice. His work is made accessable due to the fact that he draws inspiration from real life issues that everyone can relate to. Musical performers throughout time, geography and class, are all themes that run throughout his works. Something that sets Bradford apart from others working in the abstract, is that he actually tells a story that the viewer can pick up on. Better yet, because his works are so abstract, this allows the viewer to make their own interpretations which allows them to tell their own stories.
The piece "Scorched Earth" is a work that draws the viewer in because of its use of one of my favorite themes, contradiction. All of the blocks and lines are going in all different directions but staying organized at the same time relative to where they are put on the canvas. The layering of the piece allows for this to happen. They are distict layers, yet they are able to compliment each other. The piece makes use of its space in many different and interesting ways. This work, when viewed, looks like the map of a city. In a way, it looks like an actual place; a space that truly exists. It looks like a space that a population would inhabit. The title itself puts emphasis on this, like we are looking down on part of the earth. One of the things that Bradford talks about when discussing his work is he both deals with issues concerning individual people, and also issues concerning humanity as a whole."Scortched Earth" is definitely one of his works that does a great job communicating those issues.
It is important to realize that you can't just look at things from the surface; there are things that go much deeper that are just as important. Some of his other works reflect this as well. He will have a general portrait of something that you see right away, but look deeper, and you will see faces, or writing letting the viewer know that there is so much more going on. Bradford talks about using grids and map-like shapes because they are the most stable representations of where we are, yet at the same time, they are constantly on the verge of change. Anything can happen to alter the shape which is something that "Scorched Earth" deals with. The piece is based on the riots in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The idea of taking a historical event and portraying it in an abstract way is very interesting. It allows the viewer to look at a historical event in a completely different way. The viewer is able to look at the work, think about what happened, and come up with a new thought they would never have realized had they just read about the event in a history book.
Bradford does a great job of expressing conflicting themes and ideas. He uses color to show that light can come from darkness. Black and dark red are prominent colors in this piece; however, the entire rainbow of colors are present. The colors represented are not as bright as if Bradford had used florecent paint, but just the presence of the different colors gave me the feeling that darkness was not the only theme that Bradford wanted to get across. It was like he was trying to say that things which seem dark and hard to handle, can turn into something positive. His works are worth the taking the trip to see for the very fact that its important to make up your own mind about what is going on in the world around you. developing those skills and an imagination to help you along, is vital. Considering Bradford's work is a great way to do this. The one thing that I think anyone looking at Bradford's work can take away with them is the fact that nothing is ever really as it seems.
