Fox with Hummingbird 2011

"As a rule, Robert's mixed media photographs are immediately identifiable.  They usually depict hybrid spirits--part human, demon, and animal--all of them reeking with existential angst.  That said, there's one work in the show that doesn't shout her name.  In the piece Fox with Hummingbird there aren't any of the typical Roberts pictoral distortions and the underlying ecological pathos of Fox with Hummingbird is maybe the stronger for it." *

So what do I make of this,  "reeking of existential angst?" When I first read this review, I felt the way I would if a  friend told me how much better I looked now that I had lost all that weight, or that they didn't really care what everyone said about me, they still liked me--that backhanded compliment that always comes as such a surprise as we try to figure out what the heck is really being said.  And since I didn't  really understand  what existential angst was, I looked  it up and here is what lifemyths.com gave me: "Existential angst is the name given to the awareness (through lived experience) of one’s existential condition. One who experiences existential angst comes face to face with the existential limits of their existence. For example, through the experience of eg. uncertainty, meaninglessness or endings or death, the resultant anxiety reflects their aloneness in making sense of their existence."  Little did I know....

*Diane Armitage, THE magazine, April 2012 in a review for Under 35, Zane Bennett Gallery,March 2012

http://www.zanebennettgallery.com/

http://issuu.com/flavorgrafix/docs/the-april_2012-web/49?zoomed=true&zoomPercent=99&zoomX=0.07475728155339811&zoomY=0.25018867924528304&noteText=&noteX=&noteY=&viewMode=magazine