馬克·朱斯汀尼安

This work is in good condition overall, as is the canvas, which is clear and taut. There is light wear and handling around the edges of the painting. Examination under ultraviolet light reveals no evidence of restoration. Unframed, on a stretcher.
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Mark Justiniani gathers an unwitting crowd to witness a coronation in Spectator, oil on canvas painting. As his practice, he renders the scene with unerring eye for detail, superb draughtsmanship and a gift for narration. Evidenced not only by his paintings but also by his sculpture and installation works, Justiniani has equal aptitude in constructing spaces where crucial turn of events might take place. He is capable of immersing the viewer in the scenes he conjures not merely through figurative references but more so, through heightened feeling and pendulous suspense evoked by narrative.

In Spectator, the opera house is the space of the event before us; its main figure is depicted from the back, about to grasp the crown floating in still air. It is easy to imagine this figure and the viewer as one. Justiniani conflates presence within canvas, suspended in time with the person before the canvas, occupying real space-time. We are inside the horseshoe-shaped auditorium of an opera house, where an investiture is to take place. It is telling that Justiniani chooses to depict a space stoked by spectacle. Not all that was seen and witnessed was to be found on stage; much else that took place were in the foyers and saloons of the 18th-century opera house as it is in this present-day theatre.

A stillness reigns amongst Justiniani’s three-tiered grouping of figures. In the boxes are anonymous silhouettes, unmoving and faceless. Within the theatre’s central space are well known icons. Heroes hobnob with Hollywood stars and music legends in this gathering of known figures. This crowd reacts in agile suspense to the coronation about to happen. While their faces exhibit a range of emotions, they are transfixed and made inert by a force concealed. Is power wielded by the lone, shadowy figure in the balcony’s topmost box or is it in our hands, as we become one with this would-be king?

The opera for Justiniani might well be a metaphor for the deluge of images in contemporary life. By conjuring a scene where spectatorship is central theme, he brings about a troubling of the image, especially those massively circulated at heightened speeds and insurmountable reach. This factory of images may well be the kingdom of the figure about to crown himself, whose power is rather uncertain. Before the crowd, we become this faceless king and yet we are enslaved by greater force, perhaps by capital that voraciously feeds on this unceasing manufacture of empty selves temptingly emulated by many. Spectator does not stray from Mark Justiniani’s sharp critique, it is characteristic of an art practice that is perceptive, grounded and informed by deep insights on human existence.