“I Feel Like I’ve Been Here Before,” Bakpak Durden’s solo exhibition, exploring perspective, neurodivergence and intersectional identity, opens to the public on Saturday, November 13, 2021 from 6-9PM at 2845 Gratiot Avenue. (RSVP) Their series of paintings examines specific experiences that we -as humans- come up against and have to power through in order to maintain the “normalcy” of life. Each painting is Durden’s way of creating a meticulously archival recording of those moments. In doing so, the work validates each occurrence, giving each instance equal value in the cycle; whether it be emotions such as love, joy, or pain and despair.
Bakpak’s oil paintings capture and amplify precise moments in time ingrained with a tension that reflects that of their own emotional experiences: the moment of reckoning upon acknowledging the return of a depressive phase; the moment in which one loses control and sees no opportunity to redirect. Additionally, their photography practice deeply informs their paintings by documenting subjects transitioning from one emotional state of being to another, suspending moments in time with clarity.
Their work visually represents these themes through metaphor, analogy, and the juxtaposition of hyper-realistic imagery and geometries that disturb the continuity of the scene and break the plane, inviting the viewer to contemplate their own positioning relative to Durden’s personal narratives. Through heightened contrast and the intentional use (or absence) of color, each image they ultimately compose is charged with the weight of that same tension: the subject exposed, hanging in the balance of a fleeting moment.
Durden’s work revolves around their lived experience, one that is shaped by race, gender, mental and physical health. As a painter, muralist, illustrator and photographer, they express complex emotions and elements of their identity that escape definition by any other means. Thematically, their works often examine the cyclical nature of depression and recovery, our propensity to forget and relive the depths of that cycle, and the futility of attempts to rationally dissect them. Their hyper-realistic compositions often feature figures whose gender is intentionally complicated or obscured to reflect their own reality as a trans artist and challenge the social oppressions perpetuated by the gender binary.
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