Robert Therrien
Untitled (Blue Chapel)
In No Title (Blue Chapel) Therrien has reduced the image of a chapel to a polygon. The object and its ground both glow, but the chapel-shape is crisp and simple, reminiscent of a piece of cut paper. Like many of Therrien’s early pieces, this abstraction slips into representation and the visual and spiritual power of the image is emphasized by the strong central placement of the chapel.
Robert Therrien’s work assumes a variety of forms that transform objects through visual similarity, graphic reduction, or shifts in scale. His art, accordingly, seems embedded in the structures of experience. Therrien’s work inserts itself between the viewing subject and the external and objectified world. We see the Platonic forms of objects and shifts in scale, reminding us of our perspective and embodied engagement with the world.