“Human Is In The Details”
Dale Erispe
12 September – 3 October 2020

In a series of works called The Empire of Light, the Surrealist René Magritte depicted street
views of houses at nighttime, with a lone lamppost and few glowing windows emerging out of
the surrounding pitch darkness. Above, however, lies a blue daytime sky filled with fluffy
clouds—producing an unsettling imagery of day and night confrontation and evoking a moment
both tranquil and bizarre.

Inspired by these works, Dale Erispe in this solo exhibition gathers compositions that reveal a
similar intermingling of night and day but replaces the houses with much taller and massive
edifices. Unlike in Magritte’s scenes in which the fields of light and dark mostly meet along
irregular outlines cast by trees shading the houses, Erispe sets the monolithic structures directly
against the opposing brightness, delineating sharp, geometric silhouettes. These crisp edges, in
turn, contrast further with the scattering of free forms produced by the white clouds. The
juxtaposition defines a strikingly robust skyline—with structures appearing as fortresses and
monuments. But all these mighty buildings are still subsumed under the sky’s expanse, a
vastness that ultimately overpowers even the most colossal feats of humankind in the built
environment. It is in this ultimate surrender of architecture and engineering to nature that Erispe
reinterprets the visual paradox imagined in The Empire of Light—a theme that has always been
central to the artist’s oeuvre over the years. Like in his past works that reflect on human
intelligence, ingenuity, and mastery over nature without the use of human figures, he relies on
details in infrastructure to indicate human presence and intervention. The sense of order and
conscious design, of purposeful action, are all manifested in the arrangement of geometric
shapes and patterns on grills, windows, and floors that articulate each building.

The jarring picture of dark and imposing forms in bright, open spaces may also resonate with
the state of restricted movements and confinements amid the current pandemic. The home for
the past few months has been a shield for most people against the threat of a viral disease. But
as days and weeks and months have passed, being pushed indoors has for some become an
extended experience of isolation, an enduring detachment from the outside world. In the works,
the buildings may be perceived as impenetrable enclosures akin to a prison, forcing its residents
to stay inside and leaving no sight of anyone outside. These images may be stark reminders of
today’s prevailing sense of safety in seclusion, but constantly troubled with the longing to move
freely and gather once again.

Curated by Ryan Francis Reyes
The Working Animals Art Projects (TWA)