Tell Me About Yourself, Analyzing the Work of Taylor Chapin

Tell Me About Yourself oil on canvas, 64” x 80”, 2023 Taylor Chapin

I recently visited the Institute of Contemporary Art San Diego’s North County gallery to view the work of local artist Taylor Chapin. The exhibit and the work I selected for this analysis is titled, Tell Me About Yourself. Chapin utilizes oil on canvas to create her vibrant works that reflect pop art aesthetics and digital imagery to create a surreal landscape. Taylor summarizes this series by saying, “the paintings reflect the multitude of internal and external desires that shape our perceptions of the world and ourselves; through the manipulation of perspective, depth, and surface, I convey a momentary sense of clarity before the chaos returns.” (“Taylor Chapin: Tell Me About Yourself - ICA”) 

Chapin’s use of line is the most obvious element in the work. From the checkerboard pattern of the figures and their reflections to the ribbon-like waves that dominate the foreground and background, lines tell the majority of the story in this piece. Tension is created between the hard and soft lines of the chair and the overlay, the pattern of the figure against the curves of the body and the beginning and endings of color areas that create artificial lines between them. Line is used to heighten the viewers sense of the surreal while pulling us in with familiar shapes. 

The artist’s use of value is key to the feeling of depth we sense as we investigate the infinite space of the background. The high contrast black and whites pop against the more gradient values surrounding them. Chapin has a keen sense of shape and uses these elements to convey both masculinity and femininity without revealing gender. The figure somehow gives a sense of a female form with no identifying elements, perhaps it is the pose that makes this known. We the viewer make assumptions about feminine forms by how we perceive vulnerability and sexuality. The human forms are lounging idly and appear to be both listening and extremely bored, perhaps we are meant to question whether they are hearing a lover tell them too much about themselves. 

Taylor’s use of color is a key element that creates a surreal world in which we feel removed, its otherworldly rainbow hues set an alien landscape scene. Her use of contrasting and sometimes complementary colors adds to the tension of these strange figures in a strange land. A dream world made in the 1980s that was somehow broadcast into the future and reflected through satellite waves to make its way back to us earthlings. 

Chapin positions the figures both floating and reclining in a somewhat infinite space that we cannot see completely. While viewing this work in person, I found myself standing close to it, wondering if I could step into this strange space. I found the use of brushstrokes to be an interesting feature of this painting. Given the subject, I would have almost expected it to be a digital work or airbrushed. It was in fact oil on canvas. I enjoyed this nod to tradition in a work that feels so modern. 

Taylor’s artist statement included her views on sexism, gender, and humanity being used as a commodity. The proliferation of social media has created a time when people have become products. The artist asks us to consider our role in this commodification, are we merely consumers? Do we see ourselves reflected here as an object that can be manipulated for capitalism? Are we beginning to feel increasingly used and disposable? Women have always been objectified to sell things, and as we step further in the future of artificial intelligence, women-like figures can be created and manipulated at will. Chapin’s work begs us to consider what is real and what is a lie wrapped in a pretty package. Her use of the figures in their checkerboard print reminds us of a vector; transparent, resizable, and most importantly a digital object that can forever be stretched and shrunk to appease its maker. This feminist commentary is both relevant and timely given the systematic barriers that continue to try to control and dominate female-identifying individuals. 

As we examine Chapins’ use of semiotics in this work, we can deduce that she has a love for the past and a romance with the familiar. Furniture, household objects, and human forms all remind us that this scene tells us about human society. The midcentury detail of the recliner conjures up the 1950s ideals of who and what women were supposed to be, a call back to the origins of modern patriarchy, and a high time for commercial advertising. The abstract wavy lines recall the psychedelics of the 1960s era, a time when counterculture rejected the slick machismo of the 1950s that came before it. She balances this tension with the black and white checkerboard figures, they are both neutral and decidedly foreign. They are neither here nor there and exist in a kind of Alice Through the Looking Glass ether that both pulls and pushes them forward. They leave negative space for the wishes of the viewer. Fator 4 

Citations 

“Taylor Chapin: Tell Me About Yourself - ICA.” ICA, 31 Oct. 2023, icasandiego.org/art/taylorchapin-tell-me-about-yourself.