A recurring motif of Wolfgang Dieter Bauer’s series ‘Lumberton,’ this piece presents a character from the body of work of filmmaker David Lynch. The woman in this artwork is Patricia...
A recurring motif of Wolfgang Dieter Bauer’s series ‘Lumberton,’ this piece presents a character from the body of work of filmmaker David Lynch. The woman in this artwork is Patricia Arquette, who plays the characters of Renee and Alice in his 1997 neo-noir film ‘Lost Highway.’ In this painting, the character is removed from the context of the film, and placed into the context of a luxury resort in the Maldives. The subject of the painting looks into the distance, though the perspective of the composition makes it impossible to tell what her focus is on. She is holding an object that the viewer cannot identify, as it appears to be packaged, though the title of the piece suggests that it is a VHS tape. VHS tapes are seen throughout ‘Lost Highway’ and are used to threaten and frighten the film’s characters and its viewer. In this piece, a sense of foreboding is created, as though something is on the cusp of happening, but the viewer is not yet certain what it will be. The contrast between the serenity of the surroundings and the mystery of the atmosphere is often seen in Dieter Bauer’s work.