Hayden White’s work derives solely around the sketchbook doodle, utilizing automatic process, free of preemptive forethought. A rejection of immediate sentiment seems prominent, yet imagery sets a stage for interaction, once a viewer commits to its engagement. The work poses a great question: What can be found during periods of being lost? At first glance, imagery feels unsettling, is void of immediate understanding, yet playfulness draws one in, as much curiosity is conjured. This curiosity supersedes fear of inability to gain anthropological or epistemological foothold, threading through a potentially nightmarish event. Stagnant form heeds to the unfolding of animate creatures, born out of the void of unrecognizability. It is inside this very void however, this discomfort, that one finds safety, whilst deciphering what is happening; it seems okay to accept the invitation to dive into the conversation of post-surrealistic morphology, remembering that unknownness equates to reinvention. The paintings take you in, and spit you out, in an abrupt yet lengthy fashion, causing realignment against notions of self in a new way. The “unstill life” paintings serve as a reiteration of Memento mori, as flux between inanimate and animate embody stripped-down symbology, reminding of the sardonic dark whimsy of existence as we pass through its continuum.

-Steven Larson