Tricia Cline

Tricia Cline, The Exile on the Path of the Mouse Arrives,
2004 porcelain 8'x16'x21' 

I like Tricia Cline figures. Her small sculptures represent a strange fantasy world. They also narrate something about their world. Her current exhibition Exiles in Lower Utopia represent humans that are searching for something, pope like figures and dieties. All the figures have Cline’s face and most are with certain animals such as The Exile on the Path of the Mouse Arrives. The girl in a late 1800s farm dress with boots sniffs the ground searching for a mouse while carrying one on her back. Cline makes this figurine have a lost enhanced sense of animalistic qualities. Her media is usually porcelain. Many of her current statues are fired clay with an off white or light gray color. They appear unglazed so it won’t rob the pieces in its narrative roles. Cline uses her face and body to make most of her works. Her blank gaze gives a signature mark in her statues. I’m also very fascinated with Cline works and how some of her pieces are comparable from ancient civilizations. The nude statues have qualities of Greek or Roman statues depicting the statue as this ideal youthful body. But the position in which Cline creates these pieces is her own style with the theme of pilgrimage or animal behavior

Tricia Cline, Herself, Former Indras All
2008 porcelain 20'x10'x6'

In her piece, Herself, Former Indras All, Cline uses this fired porcelain figurine of herself sitting in a throne like an Indra would do. There are faces of her stacked on top of the first main head. These cut heads gradually become smaller with half of an outline sun attached to the first big head to the smallest.  The Indra a mythological character coming from ancient Sanskrit myths was once considered the highest god controlling the sun, weather and war. He was similar to Zeus at one point. In Hinduism, his role is more of a diety or a minor god compared to Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. In her piece, Indra (usually a male) takes the figure of Cline and displays the heads of other Indras who also are in other worlds in the void. It can also be interpreted as former Indras that always take the appearance of Cline’s face.             

Tricia Cline, Exile and the Manticore,
2008 porcelain 13x12x5

Another piece, Exile and the Manticore, has a mythical beast a Manticore behind a girl which also has Cline’s facial features. The girl is heavily dressed as if in an expedition with the Manticore as protection in this fantasy like narrative piece. The origin of this mythological beast comes from ancient Persia. It was considered as a man eater like a lion but with a human face and legs or tale of a lizard. It is also similar to an ancient group before the Persians, the Assyrians. The Assyrians created the Lamassu a winged human-headed bull as protectors of their gates.

 Hiliad and Waloogn, are two figures with the bodies of young women. Their heads, however, are from birds like a raven or crow. They are black with the dull fired porcelain. They remind me of Egyptian artworks found throughout their temple walls, high reliefs, and papyrus scrolls. Horus god and son of Osiris (god of the dead) appear as a falcon or a man with a falcon head. Cline positions her two figures with animal behavior by the two heads tilting to one side like a curious bird.    

Her fairly small pieces are fascinating. They do focus on telling a narrative about the world. I like her use of unglazed porcelain and various colors she paints the humans, animals, and beasts.