Dust

In Jay Parnell's show Dust, he not only explores the meaning of dust as something left behind, but also as something that records the very fabric of our environments, from the microscopic shedding of skin to the monumental crumbling of empires: "Dust is the ultimate democratizer." Parnell explains.

Parnell works with oil on wood panel in Dust, illuminating in his subjects the quiet, often forgotten moments in the aftermath of a moment waiting to become a memory, inviting the viewer to confront the impermanent state of his work, as well as the beauty of the archive of the moment itself. 

The pieces in Dust draw the viewer into these transitional periods, often centering upon the faces of Parnell's subjects. The subject matter Parnell depicts upon his wooden panels is, as the very artworks themselves, temporary. "Ultimately, this body of work serves as a meditation on our own ephemerality." Parnell describes. While his work focuses on capturing a passing moment in time, perhaps more importantly, it serves as a witness to the decay of his subjects, recording the transient moments both before and after their fleeting existence.

"As a painter, I examine how dust acts as a physical manifestation of memory and a proxy for humility," the artist writes. The persistence of his title, dust itself, removes the grandeur of earthly conquests from the focus of his show. Dust resides equally across time, space, and subject, attesting to the existence of triumphs and failures and all in between as decay sets in. It is perhaps the most humbling experience Parnell explores: to understand the fleetingness of a moment, and knowing that it shall be the dust which will tell your story, long after your own lips have faded away.

Despite the profound philosophical conventions Parnell ties the concept of dust to, it is so often overlooked in ordinary life. In this way, Dust offers the viewer a chance to reframe the commonly agreed-upon customs of remembrance, to see themselves both reflected in his work and, at the same time, changed by it. 

"By rendering the invisible visible, my art challenges the perception of dust as something to be cleared, reframing it instead as a poetic archive of existence and a quiet monument to passing time," Parnell concludes, honoring the depth of his inspiration as well as his own work and its ability to reflect these evocative conceptions.