Surface as “Wounded Material”
The textured, crinkled substrate reads as scarred, resistant material, not passively shaped but asserting its own autonomy.
Adorno’s aesthetics insists that authentic art preserves the memory of suffering within its form; the surface carries a subtle trace of abrasion or weathering, producing an “objectness” that refuses mere representation.
The forest does not appear as a calm idyll. Instead it sits atop a substrate that pushes back, producing a tension between:
• the lush greens (appearance)
• the rough, mineral blues/greys (material truth)
This is a forest that is not fully reconciled with itself.
Non-Identity in the Trees
The trees never fully solidify into clear forms. Their boundaries are uncertain.
Adorno valued art that resists identity-thinking—art that cannot be easily named. The trees hover between:
• figuration and abstraction
• unity and dispersal
• luminosity and opacity
Art by Kate W 