McArthur Binion

DNA: Sepia: V

DNA: Sepia V is among a series of personally charged and layered abstractions by Binion. Copies of private documents, such as Binion’s birth certificate and address book, are used as the base layer of these works, forming a foundation that the artist refers to as the “under conscious.”

Reproduced pages from Binion’s handwritten address book form the under conscious of DNA: Sepia V, contributing an intimate sense of personal history to the work.

Born in Mississippi in 1946, Binion considers brown to be the defining color of his southern experience, and he refers to the Sepia series as the first of his “southern” works. The use of sepia-toned ink represents this additional autobiographical layer. The fine, grid-like pattern on the work’s surface both proclaims the investment of the artist’s hand and prompts inspection of the revelations beneath.