Andy Slater: Paintings & Sculptures
Andy Slater is a blind media artist who lives and works in Chicago. This exhibition contains eleven "paintings" from his Invisible Ink series, plus seven small bronzes. Slater's "paintings" are not normal paintings. They are audio descriptions of imagined artworks that do not physically exist; in other words, they are paintings Slater has made to be experienced the way he experiences paintings. This webpage contains the names, "mediums," and "dimensions" of each work in the show, as well as Slater's text and a corresponding Mp3 file for each of them. These texts are intended to be read by anyone who cannot listen to the audio descriptions. However, the Invisible Ink "paintings" are explicitly works of sound art; those who can hear the audio files should ignore the written descriptions. At the bottom of this page, there is a list of resources on Slater's practice for further learning.
A New Self Portrait
, 2024
Ink on paper
16" x 22"
This is my face. I know what I look like but proving it is a challenge. The canvas is cropped to the sides of the face with no free space before the edges. The painting consists of white and red. Skin is white, the features are red. My forehead takes up the top half of the canvas. There are a few fine-lined horizontal 3’s creasing my skin. My brows are bushy like a wizard’s, also resembling caterpillars. They angle like inverted check marks. My eyes are closed and show no lashes. There is a tiny dot on each temple. They are symmetrical moles. As my Nana said, I have a “perfect Roman nose.” From the little tuft of unibrow to the edge of the nostrils is about two inches. The tip of my nose ends pointing straight ahead, even though the bridge has a bump or break which sets it slightly off course. The outer corners of my eyes are also two inches away from the razorline of my mustache. Thick salt-and-cayenne-pepper hairs shaped away from the nostrils above my mouth while the rest of my beard is directed to face my feet. Stray hairs go against the grain. These bristles could easily be a nest for a robin, or whatever your birder self imagines. My lips are soft and plump; you can’t miss them. And of course, this mouth is shut for once.
Another Self Portrait
, 2018
Acrylic on canvas
12" x 8"
This is what I thought was important about me 6 years ago. From my point of view, looking down at my legs and feet while sitting. The bib of my blue denim overalls bends like a semicircle doing push ups. The metal fasteners on each side are dull silver, the buttons have lost all shine, the corresponding straps are faded and frayed. They have been holding these things up for two decades; they’re Sears and Roebuck, afterall. My t-shirt is black and the bib conceals its bold white text. The visible words read “Popcorn Panic” — upside down, of course. Cloud-round shapes in yellow hint of popped corn illustrations before the blue denim pockets hide them. A roll or two of midlife Dad-belly forms a smooth bump on the way to my lap. Dark folds scrunch up at my waist, then fade to a steady lighter shade. From the white double stitch of one seam to the next, my thighs stretch the distressed fabric. Each knee has a distinct tear in them. The left leg sports an oval hole with 5 remaining threads across its diameter. It's an eyeball-shaped oval and the threads run vertically, in an open casket kinda way. The right leg has two tears that resemble claw- or talon-marks. Both sliced horizontally across the knee cap with an inch of shedding thread between them. My skin is, not surprisingly, pale. Poking out from underneath each knee are bright red suede sneakers. They are new, fresh, and perfect. Not one spec or smudge. The left sneaker has a tighter bow than the right. The right sneaker is tilted outward revealing its white rubber underbelly. They rest on a crunchy eroding concrete step. The rusty and peeling pole of a black metal railing stems from the left side of the step and pushes past the knee and out of sight. In the top right corner, handwritten in white is, “Me” with a thin arrow pointing to my body.
Antenna Non Grata
, 2023
Oil on canvas
16" x 8"
An isosceles transmission tower leans horizontal with three bent legs. Beneath it lies no crater, as if it was laid down gently instead of deep impact. Colors of red and white curving wires wrap around the stems, as if they are chasing each other. The lines never cross, keeping a magnet’s distance between them. The wires stretch from below each bending cinch to the tip of the reflex point. The surrounding ground is a bundle of brown branches, golden grass, and dried white twigs. by the base of each leg sit spider-vein clods and hard cold mud. Large gray bolts jut out of each mud brick, six in total. They are plainly utilitarian. A large concrete building in the near distance stands alone. Beyond the roof is a sliver of clear midday sky so perfectly blue it could be a movie set mirage. The structure itself is shadow-dark. The sills of a dozen windows are outlined in faint orange. The glass lets out no light, only reflecting the tower’s red and white wires. In the foreground, away from the fallen structure, is a deposit of green glass, sharded and sharp. The pieces that are triangular stick into the mud like shark fins, others lay stacked like poker chips.
Brittle Bones (Triptych)
, 2024
Oil on canvas
Each panel: 30” x 52”
This piece is presented as a triptych. The paintings are displayed in succession from left to right.
Painting 1: Gold coins and peanut brittle cover the top of the jacket. Scrambled eggs like a high ranking general adorn the shoulders. An impossibly dark black wraps itself around the width of the body and face — a cloak that cloaks what must remain hidden. A soft maple colored drape sits 20 feet in the background. It has golden tassels framing it. The ends are sewn into the shape of magic lanterns and touch the floor.
Painting 2: There is a golden shadow cast upon the maple drape. In the center stands the mysterious form. The once hidden body has used its tantō-shaped fingernails to shred the cloak off, peeling it back to reveal its secret: a pale green-skinned woman with eccentric blue eyes fixated on opposite directions. There are light lacerations on her nose and chin. Her lips are straight. Her expression is hard to read. Is she mad, tired, or dead? The military jewels are now legible. A golden horse head, a pastel turtle, a circular blade, a row of red and emerald beads dripping to her stomach. Her coat is as impossibly dark as the cloak... Upon closer inspection, the black isn’t truly black; it’s a shifting tapestry of dark blues, purples, and chocolate hues. At the corners, where the hem of the fabric has frayed, suction cups protrude — alive, like something taken from a squid. The shape of the suction cups shift from top to bottom. They emerge from the fabric like secrets spilling out. Had they been performing acts of force, theft, and/or care?
Painting 3:
A happy green kid with rosy cheeks and a runny nose smiles, sticking out his purple tongue. He eyes another child behind him — a child holding a large basket of candy, the kind with no names or labels. The second child waves a giant Twizzler shoelace licorice above the snot-nosed boy’s head, taunting him. The licorice hovers like an antenna, just out of reach. In the basket live gray, beige, and cotton-candy pink colored wrappers. Each is layered with dirt, grime, and time, the kind of age you’d find in a dusty candy store, where everything has lingered forever. The candy is unfit for consumption, coated in decades-old dust — but still, kids try.
On dry yellow grass sit girls wearing orange overalls. They are barefoot, freckled, some with port-wine stains and white streaks in their hair. Butterfly stickers cover their faces and arms. They grip rock candy like knives. A cluster of old classroom desks sits sunk into the mud behind them, like a strange and makeshift landmark where all the children know to gather.
A mini flagpole rises from the cluster of desks. Hoisted above it is a red shirt with indistinguishable white block letters, crumpled and unreadable. It seems significant — but only to someone else.
In the distance, the hillside is speckled with dots of color: black, yellow, brown, orange, white, pink. It’s a sea of children, running toward their friends, racing for the candy.
Their schoolhouse looms further in the distance — empty, transparent, ghostly. The ivy spiraling up its spire is both red and white, curling endlessly toward the sky.
A silhouette of a man with long, skinny arms and a pointed nose stands at the top of the hill... He looks like he’s about to speak. His arms stretch above his head, his bright white mouth wide open. There is no way he is stopping the candy revolution.
FFI
, 2023
Oil and ink on canvas
22" x 32"
A close-up of a wall so extreme it exposes the masonry’s pores. Gloppy pea green paint mindlessly thrown on four chipping, chalky cinder blocks. Interrupting the elementary scholastic green marinade are bits of graffiti. Thick black marker in loopy cursive: “ntil I slee.” Each letter “E” is written backwards. The same sized marker but in yellow declares: “Sgt. Laura has w.” In the bottom left corner is a crooked white sticker decal bordered in red roses that reads, in block letters, “ Hello, my name is,” followed by handwritten, “Sgt. Snora” in all-caps ballpoint. Across from the sticker are the letters, “BGUM” written with a slanted form forged by a bright white paint pen. Teardrops stream from the “B” and the “M,” running to the bottom and out of sight.
Inside the White Cube
, 2024
Acrylic on canvas
20" x 20"
Pinhole-sized red lights dot the dimensions of a square room. The three walls shown are covered in a fluffy cloud material. The shapes of the textiles and rounded fibers are shaded with variants of white: slightly gray and near porcelain undercoat each puffy cluster. The walls are perfect clones of each other, with matching textures, porcelain shadows, other crannies. The red lights resemble cross stitching. The ceiling is mirrored with a singular plate. It buckles downwards, and the curve warps the reflection, stripping the walls of their triplet traits. In the mirror the lights are wider and grow one into the next, linking them together like a rosary. Off to the left and hiding from the mirror is a small green box. It sits on the floor and against the wall. It fits between two red lights. It is slightly larger than the bulbs and has a large white dot on its top. There is one short shadow of this box cast onto the white floor between too small drains. The drain is as wide as the floor and the darkness beyond the slit, in circles, emphasizes the water's route. One on top, one line in the middle, and another dot below. The symbol for division.
Landing Site
, 2020
Oil on canvas
72" x 48"
In the center of this image is a white cube. Above it is a pitch black sky. The cube is bright enough to illuminate the ground before it. Inside of the cube lies a sleeping person. Their back is facing forward and their features are hidden. Their feet are positioned on the left side of the cube and their head on the right. They are draped in a short navy blue blanket. The blanket looks to be silk with a golden lantern design. The blanket does not cover the person’s legs, and they are naked from the knees down. On the back of their left calf is a scar shaped like a chisel. The figure casts a faint shadow on the dirt outside of the cube. The dirt is a mix of yellow sand and dark soil with bone white chips layered within. In the sand there are series of drifts that form river-shaped lines that end in a blurry delta. The delta sand is dark and extends to the lower right corner of the painting. On the opposite side, the deep brown soil fades to a black shadow. The two bodies of sand and dirt meet in the middle, blending in a vertical zig zag pattern. From a further point of view, the small white chips in the soil appear like a constellation in the dirt.
QZ16 (IC board) Internal
, 2022
Gel pen and stencil on paper
24" x 32"
In the center is a wound-up ball of multi-colored laser beams. Like a Dragon’s Eye marble the colors mix and flow. The ball emits circular radar blips of pink, neon orange, and computer blue. The rings call out to all corners of the canvas, allowing an inch of space between each wave. In the wake of the neon ripples are tiny squares and hexagons. They rotate black and white, uniform in size, sequenced oppositely in straight succession on a background of circuit-board-forest green. Appearing here and there, seemingly randomly, are glops of red and brown. The glops are most likely made of blood and, as they interrupt the series of squares into hexagons, they show how ill-prepared the core of this panel truly is. Blood should not be glopping all over this surface. In the bottom right corner lives the hand scratched initials, “ZYGO.”
Who's Day Is It?
, 2019
Mixed media on wood
48" x 30"
This piece is cut in the shape of an old television. There is a TV screen in the middle flanked with two large round knobs on each side. There are two short legs on the left and right side of the bottom of the TV. They are white. The rest of the body is bright yellow. Each knob is colored differently. The top left knob is colored light blue and has a red letter "V" on it. The bottom left knob is red with a blue letter "R" on it. The top right knob is white with a light green dot in the center. The bottom right knob is pink with a white square in the middle. In the center is the TV screen. It is rounded at its corners and wider than it is tall. There is a thin silver frame around the screen that looks to be real metal. Inside the area of the screen are six square sections: three on top and three on the bottom. Each section has a different image in it. The sections left to right and top to bottom are as follows:
Top Left: A young boy with a large smile showing a missing tooth. He has lime-green skin and red freckles. His face is cropped to only show a few strands of white hair. The boy’s shirt collar points out from the lower right corner and pushes against his smiling cheek. To the left of his face are the words, “Oil 4 Dinner.” The text is written in a bold black font with each word stacked on top of another. The text sits on a yellow background that matches the body of the TV.
Top middle: In the center is an upside down ice cream cone. The ice cream is white, as if it is vanilla. The cone is tan with a checkerboard pattern throughout. The triangle tip of the cone looks to have had a small bite taken out of it, and the white ice cream drips down the side. The ice cream cone sits on a pink background.
Top right: In the bottom left corner of this square is the orange tip of a glue bottle. The tip has vertical black lines representing ridges. The top of the bottle cap has black splotches on it. They are small and round. There is a thin black line connecting the top of the orange tip to the upper right corner of the square. It is straight with no curves. Beneath the line sits a real silver dollar. The coin has been covered in white glue. The word "dollar” is visible under the dried glue.
Bottom left: A close view of an eyeball with a large black pupil. A thin ring of blue surrounds the pupil. Tiny thin veins take the shapes of red snakes on the white background of the eye. The top and bottom eyelashes are clumped together with makeup. The clumps look like the black tip on the glue cap in the previous square.
Bottom middle: A thin pink hand with painted nails and rings is in the center of the square. The back of the hand is facing forward and the fingers are pointing upward. The hand’s nails are long and sharpened to a point. Each finger is painted white with a silver decal letter on it. From left to right: The letter “A” on the pinky, “R” on the ring finger, “R” on the middle finger, “O” on the forefinger, and, finally, a "W” on the thumb. The pinky and middle finger each have the same designed rings on them, a silver band with one turquoise stone. The hand is smooth with no dimples. The background of the square is green and matches the skin of the boy in the first square.
Bottom right: The final square contains a scene from a birthday party. Six children gather around a cake. Three boys and three girls all dressed in red jumpsuits with yellow epaulets on their shoulders. They each wear matching yellow hard hats and have green skin like the boy featured in the first square. They stand around a white pedestal holding a cake. The frosting on the circular cake is pink. The one sole candle shoots a silver flame into the air that rises above the kids’ heads and extends beyond the frame of the scene. In the back hangs a black and white polka dot banner with the words, “Who’s Day Is It?” written in bold yellow type. The background is made of blue gaffer’s tape and is cut out around the drawing of the birthday scene.
Witnesses
, 2021
Oil on canvas
72" x 48"
In the foreground and at the bottom right corner of this painting is a splintering wooden stake. Under each splintered piece is a darker shade of the gray and brown wood. There are numerous splinters up and down the stake, making it look like rigid cornsilk. There is a metal chain with tiny links tied around the middle of the stake. The chain leads behind the stake and into the center of the painting. The tarnished metal chain is rolled around a painted stone. The stone is in the shape of a large turtle and is colored like an Easter egg: multiple pastels with tangential color lines. It holds the chain down to the cement ground. The taught chain casts no shadow. The bright rock is the focal point of this painting. Its presence is undeniable as it contrasts the gray sky and ground. There is no definite horizon and the gray dusty cement blends with the overcast sky. Directly above the rock at the top of the painting floats a fuzzy small white square-shaped object. It appears to be far off in the distance, but the unconfirmed horizon makes it hard to judge.
Your Turn
, 2024
Stencil on wood
22" x 11"
On a muddy brown panel, bright purple text set in Sloan font reads: “DOYOUSEEWHATISAYTHATIHEARIFSOTHENTELLTHESKIESBEFORETHEYREDARK."
Resources
Andy Slater. "Crypto Acoustic Auditory Non-Hallucination" (Literary project, McSweeney's Internet Tendency)
Mary Bodett, Pooja Pittie, Andy Slater. "On Disability Aesthetics" (Conversation, 3Arts)
Molly Joyce and Andy Slater. "Interview" (Interview, Self-published)
Molly Joyce with Andy Slater. Side by Side (Performance, Carnegie Hall)
Sound Piece. "Episode 4: Andy Slater" (Podcast interview, Sound Piece)