Plates

HUMANSCAPE. 2021-?

 

HUMANSCAPE is an ongoing series of monumental portraits of people the artist met by chance on the streets of Manhattan, encounters that began in March 2021. Most volunteered to have their thoughts recorded, audio files of which may accompany the artwork. 

 

HUMANSCAPE examines the tension between the city and the people who must endure its challenging environment, especially those individuals most underrepresented in society.

 

“[Richard] Masters does not romanticize or sentimentalize [his subjects]. He regards them with tenderness, but he is aware of how complex the reasons are that landed them in the streets. He invites us, however, to delve deeper with him, to give these men and women their due as fellow human beings, to see the beauty in that commonality, a difficult beauty that is not immediately apparent—as well as to think more about their circumstances, to lean in and not away.

“These portraits make me think of many things, including the contrast between how powerful they are and how powerless the people in them are in real life. They also make me uncomfortable, among other feelings. And they make me feel ashamed. It is unconscionable, as Masters’ son noted, that the richest, most technologically advanced country in the world cannot find a solution to homelessness, to a systemic failure of massive proportions and heartbreaking consequences. It is, ultimately, a matter of will but it seems that the will to find adequate solutions is lacking, so far.

“’Attention must be paid,’” said playwright Arthur Miller, admonishing us, in another context. Masters also asks us to pay attention, to see the homeless as individuals who need help, as a societal responsibility. They are not rubbish. If we do that, he will have achieved what he has felt compelled to do; if he does that, he will have accomplished much.”

–– Text adapted from the essay, Forgettable, Unforgettable, by Lilly Wei

 

 

Precipice. 2022

 

This work was inspired by a picture the artist’s son took of himself just three months before losing his long battle with clinical depression. It was also the last picture he saved on his camera. 

 

 

Threshold. 2021

 

The concept of impermanence is an essential doctrine of Buddhism. It teaches all human existence is temporary. The artist experienced an enlightened moment when he witnessed the transitional beauty of his father’s approaching death, an aspect of human existence that is as consequential as birth itself.

 

In this piece, the profile image of the artist’s father comprises 108 paper sample cards (4″ x 6″) that are arranged and mounted on three boards of identical size to form one continuous image. According to Vedic cosmology, 108 is the basis of creation, thus representing the universe and all of our existence.

 

Dimensions: 36” × 72” (three panels)

Media: graphite on 4×6″ paper sample cards 

 

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