Jaime Coffey Bateman Intentions
October 6 — October 31
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TAG Artist Jaime Coffey Bateman’s solo exhibit Intentions is an exploration of the Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia. Jaime’s work spans from her 2005 trip to the region to current discoveries with lithium mining and it’s imprint on the landscape.
Jaime works in egg tempera, a mixture of egg yolk, dry pigment, and water. Her new paintings are filled with multiple layers for each color, highlighting nuances between tone, transparency and vibrancy. Jaime has chosen a selection of past oil paintings from the previously pristine environment to contrast her egg tempera paintings, which depict current images of the salt flats, lithium mines, and vehicle tracks as seen from a higher vantage point.
“I was on my honeymoon and we’d hired a jeep,” reflects the artist. “The night sky was like nothing I had ever seen before, so clear and full of endless stars that I remember feeling protective of it. My neck hurt from looking up for so long, but I couldn’t look away. We set out in the dark one morning and finally arrived on the salt flats, which had a thin layer of water on them and reflected the sunrise. We drove for hours watching the horizon perfectly mirroring the sky and distant mountains on the water. When we finally stopped, we marveled in the silence at our bare feet in ankle deep, warm water upon endless, rough hexagonal shapes.”
As in her past exhibits, Jaime continues to promote curiosity by asking critical questions and focusing her artwork on environmental commentary and issues with global warming.
“With this particular show,” states Jaime, “the fragility of life and our interdependence is very present for me. The Bolivian people live in a poor, landlocked country, yet they are astonishingly good at making their voices heard. I’ve thought about how my own marks as a traveler compare to deeper marks of foreign investors, in this case with lithium mining. Intentions is an investigation of human impressions and choices that are depicted as visual paths through the landscape.”
TAG Bytes Episode 9: Jaime Coffey Bateman
TAG Artist Jaime Coffee Bateman walks us through her fine art, solo exhibition Intentions in episode 9 of TAG Bytes.