Viewing David Baker’s “SOTTO VOCE”

David Baker

Watching David’s work “Sotto Voce” felt like watching the sky at twilight on a stormy day during the fall, when a hail storm is about to break, and the winds are so strong that it reconfigures the clouds. It also made me feel peaceful and engaged—wanting to watch more and with the desire of seeing it on a large-scale and screened with a high contrasted luminosity. The pictorial sensibility is clearly evident and the work is masterfully executed, masking the craft, the source, and the process. I could think of so many methods, techniques, and possible sources for this piece, but at the end any of these thoughts became totally irrelevant because the hermitic characteristic of the work and its’ sublime imagery was its strength. One thought was Gerhard Richter gray paintings. Another one was that individual frames gave me the felling of zooming into the cloudy section of Turner’s paintings. David seems focused on welcoming surprises that emerge out of evolving processes where in fact his own limitations are dictating results and shaping his aesthetics. Pixelation, rawness, and chroma-saturation are always present. The work’s gamma is subdue by high black and white contrasts limiting the color palette to a predominant gray, where the actual white and black colors seem to be negotiating for attention. As the piece unfolds a subliminal flicker softly emerges imprinting the retina with a delicacy of touch—as a soft gesture, that if not paid attention to, could be easily missed. Due to the nature of our studio visit I felt inspired by David’s work and curious to see more of it. I would like to know more to understand his work in its’  full complexity and to define our common interests. Our conversation was pleasant and if it wasn’t because I had to go to Flushing Ave. to rent a truck hours would have flown by. There was so much to talk about and very little territory covered. However, there seemed to be many areas of common interest. Congratulations David for your wonderful work and thanks Bradley for the introduction…..

Richard Garet 05/20/2010

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