mutatis mutandis
1999 – 2001
Elaborate, analytical, and ambitious, the mutatis mutandis series weaves together various strands of Jusidman’s previous production to reemphasize the conceptual foundation of his overall project. Here, Jusidman has postulated a machine for viewing, a controlled environment for the examination of charged and ambiguous models. This approach to artmaking may be Duchampian to the extent that attention is paid to how we see, to the conditions of visuality. Where it diverges from Duchamp is that what we see is not given short shrift by either arbitrariness in the choice of subject or undeserved metaphoric weight by virtue of poetic juxtaposition. Quite the contrary, mutatis mutandis is a precisely formulated and expansive visual argument. It is clean and incisive, yet allows enough space for aesthetic pleasure and the play of imagination.
—Richard Kalina, Constructing the Observed, 2001
The all-embracing imagery that is churned out by mass media overwhelms our lives with distraction and fantasy, or, as a reaction, disenchantment and skepticism. Painting is not an either/or proposition; it has long thrived where fantasy and skepticism simultaneously hold each other in check. The effect of the paintings in mutatis mutandis lies in matters of presence and absence, in the harmonies and dissonances between a painting and its referent, where the referred entity may be composed of either flesh or pigment. I have manipulated object-based and technology-based elements so as to call attention to the painterly effect, by placing the tactile against the optical, the literal against the metaphorical, phenomena against discourse. In these works, I attempt to re-articulate the ageless wonder and thought-nurturing regard of painting — both with and without paint.
—Yishai Jusidman
