Page 65 - Flaunt 175 - Diana

AMEH EGWUH. “LIFE AFTER LIFE 5” (2020). ACRYLIC ON CANVAS. 54” X 60”. COURTESY OF RELE GALLERY, LOS ANGELES.
By the time you reach the paintings, you are experiencing
the youthful energy of play and pleasure the artist intends. The relaxation and eager peacefulness being experienced by the figures in the paintings takes hold, and you are now ready to contemplate the great beyond. Some ascendants are dressed in more formal attire, and the gentle backwards arcs of their posture—as though being carried by an invisible hand—evoke Robert Longo’s forever falling businessmen. Some are dressed in more casual, even sports clothes. These might sit with a bit of a slump, or allow themselves to waft upwards on breezes and bunches of balloons with the more poignant poses of Renaissance paintings, especially pietas. There is a heavy quiet, what the artist describes as “a sense of resignation”, but it is more beatific and trusting than any feeling of
resistance or disappointment; there is no struggle.
Life After Life takes its title from the 1975 book by psychia-
trist Raymond Moody, who has famously stated, “I have absolute- ly no fear of death. From my near-death research and my person- al experiences, death is, in my judgment, simply a transition into another kind of reality.” As this idea not only resonates with the very sunny disposition of Egwuh himself, the artist further feels that during this past year of fear, with death looming as a relent- less threat, it was “more important than ever to reevaluate the meaning of life and to embrace its joys while we have them.” To contemplate mortality, infinity, hope and transcendence, and also to laugh. To look to the sky, kick some pink balloons, and enjoy some truly fresh, celebratory, spiritual surrealism.
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