Soul of a Country Iis a figurative portrait made from ekki wood. It features a long
and cylindrical neck that is non-naturalistic but brings a necessary postural
elegance when viewed from every side. The neck is slimmer in width compared to
the head, which brings the face into full focus by emphasizing the power of its
geometrical structures. The long and sturdy neck also adds bulk to the head. This
increase in length and weight is a practical way to give balance to the heavier
weight of the head, given the thickness of the wood.
Care has been taken to stylize the hairstyle on Soul of a Country I into a rounded
shape. It takes the form of hair that has been relaxed and assumes the curve of
the head. The short, vertical ridges that run across and between the base of the
hairline and forehead break the monotony of the chip pattern from the face to
the head—these vertical ridges add geometrical texture to the overall visual
plane of the head.
The wide plane of the forehead brings an openness and serenity to the
architectonics of Soul of a Country I. The forehead is the least decorated and
therefore least dramatic surface area. Caught between the purple-brown of the
hair and the white lower half of the face, the black paint on the forehead is
brighter than it otherwise would be, if bracketed by darker colors. This
brightness, however muted, adds to the expansiveness of the face in the way that
bright colors make a small room appear larger.
This expansiveness is sharply broken by the deep grooves of the eye sockets.
These steep slants into the wood surface compress the visual plane and reduce its
access to light, inviting a closer look at the bony cavity of the facial skeleton to
make out how the eyes are built. No indication of eyebrows has been made, and
the eyelids are open. The eyeballs are visible, and what in reality is a spherical
organ has been cut into the oval shape as defined by the close curve of upper and
lower eyelids. The eyeballs have not been carved or decorated, so as to give a
realistic depiction of the blacks and whites of the eyeballs.The sectional use of multiple colors across the physiognomy on Soul of a Country I
emboldens the visual field and heightens the pleasure of looking. Literalist
observations of the nose, mouth, ears, and eyes are deemphasized. A viewer is
likely to pay closer attention to the block of white paint on the lower half of a
face against the black in the upper half, which is pressed in by the purple-brown
of the stylized hair. All three colors are actioned by the brown base of the ekki
wood. The artist’s depiction of anatomy is more successful than his understanding
of the underlying network of muscle and bone. This is either a shortcoming of the
artist’s skill or, more likely, a disinterest in verisimilitude of the human form.
No marked emotion is shown on the face. The impassiveness may be due to the
hardness of wood, which does not lend the material an easy manipulation of
emotional states. The jawline is long and straight from the chin to the cheekbone
where, after a slight curve, the straight line continues across the forehead and to
the hairline. This long and straight jawline flattens out the cheeks on Soul of a
Country I, as does the exaggerated gap between the nose and the upper lip. The
depressed cheeks, long jawline, and oval impression of the eyes make Soul of a
Country I seem emaciated. This pseudo-naturalistic approach gives it an
otherworldliness: a strong aura of life at the intersection with death or
transcendence into a spirit realm.