Divine Julie Mehretu. The first time I read about her was in VF's Art Issue and the article talked about the 'Genius Grant' she got. How on Earth can you tell if somebody in her thirties is a genius? At least you cannot tell NOW, right? But then it came June and my luck of being in Denmark while an exhibit of her happened.So this is what she plans to express: she looks for 'complexities of the globalised world and the position of the individual in the modern urban societies'. Spacial and temporal, specific and abstract, individual and society, detail and totality. So... how? Standing in front of her paintings means to go one layer behind and even feel the movement of her strokes. There are many painters that go for one expression - she goes for the two opposite ones and put them together to make them even more powerful. The contrast does not annihilate the meaning, the mix of good and evil does not destroy the galaxy.
I thought also about the American media influence where the bad guy is very bad and the good guy is all good. We do not necessarily have to chose sides - take both sides and make a nice mix of gray (or green or purple). What Julie does is actually to do her own mix and let us get confused. Only a genius can do that. There's my answer.
