Xan Peters

Artist Statement

I use the medium of oil painting to connect histories of extinction to the legacy of collection and categorization. I reference the Baroque period and the dramatic light effects that illuminate the exotic ephemera of the Enlightenment. The dramatic yet static still life paintings of this era and their values intrigue me in the way their influence on museum conventions persists to this day. Being in dialogue with these origins allows for a consideration of the shortcomings and virtues of this way of studying the world. The subjects of my work are all themselves remnants of stories that have been plucked from their place in the world. They are represented on the canvas so that their image may be reproduced, but their physical forms and functions fade into the past. There is a false sense of security in “preserving” a vanishing or changing figuration. This act of preservation removes the subject from the flow life for the sake of its own safety, leaving it alienated from the extant world.

The lonely figures situated in melancholic, ambiguous places can be visually studied but are otherwise unknowable. The narrative is introduced through sound pieces that convey a historical relationship to the object, my own, and the novel one of the viewer. The paintings are not meant to be understood wholly by any singular articulation of information. Somewhere between the different representations and interpretations lies an ineffable truth of the subject. Definition can be helpful but potentially a trap; having an answer can lead to the end of curiosity.

Instagram: @xanosaurus
Website: xanpeters.com