ADAM EN GRISAILLE

First One-Man Show by Randy Solon | Written by Adjani Arumpac

Grey conjures a limbo. It makes up a spectrum of values teetering in between distinct black and white. Never absolute in its various states of fusion, grey has become the eloquent metaphor for disquiet. And none more disquieting in the history of man is the First Man, Adam, who bore the curse of the First Sin. Hence the title of Andoi Solon’s collection, Adam en Grisailles (or Adam in Grey).

Solon portrays the First Man in sixteen oil on canvas pieces. The artist distorts Adam’s body in a range of wistful poses, and then christens each painting with names drenched in Biblical symbolism. Take, for example, the piece entitled First Step from Eden, showing a man stepping out of a frame, into a decidedly darker dimension. This is Adam banished from Paradise. But somehow, the artist chose to portray Adam quite differently. This is not the pained, penitent Adam. He is looking directly at us, eyes accusing. And under scrutiny, we see his mouth still full of the forbidden fruit. This is Adam in defiance. Then the artist uses this frame again in five other works, all referencing to Eden. The artist actually dared to fit Paradise within the four corners of a frame.

A defiant Adam and a defined Paradise. Solon’s youth shows through his works, silently raging in their deceptive contemplative celestial containers. The figures in the canvas are in states of repose but the bright Divine light highlight for us muscles taut in expectation. The seemingly limp bodies—guided by Divine will as represented by the frame, the rope, and the bright light—are all resolute in their willingness to be led. The four Guardians of Eden sit decidedly as sentinels. The body of Adam in David’s Sling anticipates the great hurl. The Soaring Adam slyly gazes at us as he is raised midair. The violinist in Music for the Weary Soul is determined not to play, the sitting Adam in White Stain firm in not looking back, the False Prophets dogged in not hearing, seeing and saying, the Adam in The Absence of Mary stubbornly resting albeit in discomfort.

The soundless battle of desire is deafening. To submit while standing firm. To obey whilst in yearning. Contrary to the grand picture painted by the artist, this is not Adam after his banishment. The First Sin was when Adam gave in. Adam en Grisailles has not, not yet given in. Torn in between Heavenly White and Mundane Black, we see Adam struggling—like his tinkering with the Chariot’s Wheel that will never take him anywhere or his straining to get through the Narrow Door. The First Sinner has not yet sinned, even in the First Step from Eden. This is the strain before the bite. The calm before Death was invented. This is balance portrayed, with which we are doomed and blessed to live with our whole lives, compromising between longings and obligations, carefully choosing the gray areas to tread on so as not to anger the God/s.

In his first one-man show, Andoi Solon paints hope for us—descendants of the First Sinner, sinners ourselves—in shades of grey for, really, there is no other hue that best suits our fate.