Leslie Sorochan’s Stasis: A Movement Arrested

All human wisdom is summed up in two words - wait and hope.
Alexander Dumas

Marlene Miranda, Editor
TVOntario
(ILC AAT Project Team)


I must admit, I have a deep and committed appreciation for the visual arts. A true artist can encapsulate a single feeling, a single thought, or perhaps a single conviction. An artist can so precisely highlight a moment in time, in which new truths are discovered. For one breath, an artist holds still the tidings we call human nature: expressions of love; denial of temptation; beauty of human folly, and, at times, the lack thereof.

Leslie Sorochan’s collection Stasis is about a point in one’s life, a fraction in time where all is at still, and the act of progression is temporarily suspended. It is a universal story whose undercurrents sift quickly, in and out, of all lives. At one point, we are all stuck; our fates are arrested and hope is left in a balance. When hope overcomes, and one so chooses freedom, it is only then progression begins. A good friend once told me that the most tender kiss of all is the kiss of exit. A final kiss is given, and the past is gone. Sorochan’s subjects are tender, vulnerable, and some are involuntarily arrested. The past refuses to let go and the future never comes: an agonizing paradox. The ability to tread forth and face forward to new experiences, to new co operations, to new life is an awesome insight—a quality reserved for the wise. When the change of freedom, the gift of movement, the ability to carry on perseveres, it is only then, that the voice of the human story can unfold. In the works demonstrated in Stasis,


the human story
is one of a woman, of a child,
spinning to and fro,
in a downward force,
within a circular world,
then realizing that once
they have reached the bottom,
they have only just begun

Stuck in a moment,
a breath falls short;
they try and try again,
but the journey has no port.
Not Push, not Pull can undo
this great story of fate,
where Time is the Father,
and Hope is the bait.


In Leslie Sorochan’s work, there are incorporated reflections that convey a drowned truth. A somber feeling is exhibited, yet somehow, in the midst of all that is dark, the viewer is left with hope. What is also of striking note is Sorochan’s use of water-blurred images, as seen in portraits "If You Need Me", "Stasis", and "Drownproofing". With attention, these images become clear, and upon closer inspection, one can perceive the depth of the issue being presented. There is mastery in one’s craft when an artist can be simultaneously vague and precise, and Sorochan intertwines these opposites in a graceful and slightly manipulative way.

Our eyes are drawn to look closer; each drawing reveals a fragment of truth of a unique communal experience, and this is an evident motif underlying all pieces.

What is also of particular interest is how Leslie Sorochan has presented the subject in "Towards Eleven". The subject firmly grips a ran-sacked, unfashioned garment secured by a simple-knotted line of inter-woven string. Perhaps, this is an act of concealment; perhaps, this is an act of prevention. Nonetheless, the image of this child is striking and demands further inspection. What is also most curious in this depiction is the simple honesty portrayed. The placement of the subject’s hand suggests a youthful vulnerability. This child is caught as well in the bindings of life. This portrait differs greatly from the others in the collection; however, the connection of theme unites the drawing. Once again, the creator challenges us to reconsider, to re-examine, to re-interpret meaning. The portraits are dark, yet, in juxtaposition, there is also a definite and delicate beauty.

Further, we cannot ignore the calamity presented in Sorochan’s artwork. Images "Ophelia Denied", "Pieta" and "Pieta II" are dissettling, upon viewing for the first time. The subjects are in a body of water, seemingly motionless until one discovers the ripples tell of a different tale, one demanding attention. This illustration is truly macabre, and its style is reminiscent to that of early American short story writers. If you look carefully at the centre-north of the portrait "Ophelia Denied", there are illustrative cues of some long, but not lost, story. The subject is covered in a dove-white dress and appears to be entangled in time. She is neither dead nor alive, just caught. She is denied the intrinsic right to progress, to continue on with life. Her facial expression is empty, and the disarrays of her life are limp. The water’s current attempts to pass her over the existing obstacle, subtlety exposing the subject’s sexual area. This is a delicate image where an external motion, an external force is relevant. In "Ophelia Denied", though there is movement, the subject does not move. Life goes on around her, while she lays in a perilous state.

Stasis: a condition of balance among various forms; motionless.
Sorochan’s subjects often display motionless entrapment in motion-full world. Though, it is in the beauty of motion in drawings "Journey", "Resonance", and "Intervention" that remind the viewers that a transcending sense of hope exists. When we feel that we cannot go back and cannot go forward, anxiety takes over. However, Sorochan’s "Journey" offers an alternative outlook. Rather than harbouring negativity, the subject in "Journey" glides swiftly, while blindly facing the next realm. It is at these times in our life, times where we feel like we cannot move on, that a fundamental freedom is overlooked—the freedom of change. In Stasis, Sorochan bravely displays the definite and the indefinite, the moving and the unmoving, side by side, offering a balanced view, and herein lies the paradox: though, Sorochan’s subjects are suspended and caught in a moment of time, they await an internal freedom, a forked motion in one’s life.

Leslie Sorochan’s drawings tell of a difficult tale; perhaps, it is one too great and too painful for a single platform. It is a story that must be told as a collective whole. It is a story where truth comes together piece by piece, without blame. Time unravels, and all parts are considered until an emotional balance is achieved. To fully understand the figurative meaning that silently swims through the pieces represented in Stasis, all dimensions must be interpreted and explored, as Leslie Sorochan has done so in her art.