Exposed by Stefan Matis
This past year, I explored the aesthetic dynamism of light. Working with the immediacy of a digital SLR camera, I experimented with a unique exposing technique. With a tripod mounted camera, I stood in the darkness being exposed with fluid strokes of light, rendering my body in a dynamic and sporadic manner. The light found its way in every crevice of skin, on every patch of muscle. Everything bare was revealed luminously.
In the tradition of Caravaggio, this piece considers the exposing and revealing nature of light. Light bares what is both spiritually and literally hidden.
Emily Dickinson writes,
“There's a certain slant of light,
On winter afternoons
That oppresses like the weight
Of cathedral tunes.
Heavenly it hurts us;
We can find no scar.
But internal difference
Where the meanings, are.”*
In a painterly manner, lambent strokes permeate and eviscerate darkness. The veiled darkness gives birth to meaningful shapes and feelings.
~ Stefan Matis
*Emily Dickinson excerpt from "There's a certain slant of light"