Artwork Description
Ara 244: The Other Isihara Test-Marble
Dimensions: 24 x 24″
Year: 2016
Media: three-dimensional, five-color lithographic monoprint collage
Artist Matthew Shlian’s Ara 244: The Other Isihara Test – Marble invokes the textures one conveys with rich Italian marble. Seemingly chiseled straight out of the Tuscan countryside, this piece is one of a series of works combining lithographic printing techniques and geometry to create bas-relief works of art. The rigid intersecting forms create a blended contrast to the soft texture of printed paper to create the illusion of a block of stone.
Matthew Shlian’s work is derived from the intersectionality between art and science, where Shlian uses engineering skills and the aid of scientists at the University of Michigan to create intricate, geometric paper structures. While the process of executing each work is contingent upon precise measurements and a definitive degree of planning, Shlian describes that often, his final products are conceived from flaws that occur as the work is coming together. “Along the way something usually goes wrong and a mistake becomes more interesting than the original idea and I work with that instead. I’d say my starting point is curiosity; I have to make the work in order to understand it. If I can completely visualize my final result I have no reason to make it—I need to be surprised.” Shlian engages with paper in a way that imbues movement into a material often associated with two dimensionality; the finished products are kinetic both for their visual dynamics and in the way the folds physically projects from the background. Shlian works in a variety of colors, but often defaults to white—where the added flatness of the color encourages viewers to examine the work more closely and establish their own readings of the work’s depth.
by Keira Seidenberg