Drawings

Anne Colomes, Laurent Le Deunff, Thomas Klimowski, Fleur Noguera, Tamara De Wehr

27 March – 8 May 2010

Drawings presents a panorama of the drawing work of five artists: Annes Colomes, Laurent Le Deunff, Thomas Kilmowski, Fleur Noguera and Tamara de Wehr. Starting from their common artistic practice, they develop interest and offer a unique position on the concept of landscape. Etymologically this is defined as an arrangement of traits and forms, affirming a perspective through a limitation of space. Drawings showcases landscapes, alternatively, as a core element of a scenic system, as a representative motif, and – evoking an aesthetic theory expressed by Alain Roger in his théorie du paysage – as the concept of landscape itself known as “the concept of the artialization of a landscape,” based on its transformation and embellishment.

Paysages, is the title of Tamara de Wehr’s series, which showcases inked perspectives, reminiscent of what one normally finds on postcards. Integrated in these partial landscapes, manufactured objects from her home region, she produces a remote setting that questions a cultural context through the changing of a natural object into a manufactured object; from its capture to its reconstruction as an image. In this way she makes us consider her subjective point of view while addressing the different objective schemas for its representation.

Since 2005, Anne Colomes has dedicated herself to the re-transcription of her unique take on landscapes, as she tirelessly attempts to represent a waterfall (Cascade). Currently, the series comprises around sixty drawings exhibiting, in the form of an incomplete sequence, portions of the same single waterfall. Through an assiduous practice of drawing, that allies simplification with the minutiae of form, she records physically improbable flows. The strokes are refined by framing which underlines the essence of the drop. The numerous points of view grant access to a mental projection that deliciously invites us to contemplate this imaginary waterfall.

The theme of falling water is also at the heart of the drawings of Fleur Noguera, for whom smoke acts as a defining theme of her animation Smoke. Transforming first into a tree, from a tree into a cloud, from a cloud into a waterfall, she personifies a hypnotic stroll through the natural world. Her wanderings are enriched by a sonic composition which acts as a genuine ritornello, and which makes diverse references, notably to the scene of birds at the waterfall in Werner Herzog’s White Diamond (2004).

With Patterns, Thomas Kilmowski questions the “concept of the artialization of the landscape,” in a series produced from images drawn from the 1970s. He selects these for their unique patinas and gives them a new status thanks to the intervention of a geometric motif borrowed from abstract painting. The reproduction and systematic use of these signs provokes an abyssal perception of the idea of landscape as decoration, the ornamentation itself symbolising an element with its origins in the natural world.

Laurent Le Deunff, on the other hand, directly used landscapes as a means for producing his series Autoportraits dans la nature. The images come from videos filmed by Anne Colomes during a journey through the provinces of British Colombia and Alberta, Canada. It is a clever and surprising exercise in self-portraiture in which the protagonist finds himself discretely hidden in a natural environment. The wilfully accentuated margins enhance the character with a vaporous appearance, adding a sense of inertia to the unavoidable landscape.

 

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Fleur Noguera
Untitled, 2010, India ink on paper, 138 x 131 cm

Thomas Klimowski
Division, 2010, I, II, IV, paint on paper, 23 x 18 cm
Division, 2010, III, paint on paper, 46 x 18 cm

Tamara de Wehr
Paysage I, II, III, 2004, India ink on paper, 29,6 x 41 cm

Fleur Noguera
Untitled (carol’ s trees), 2009, India ink on paper, 40 x 59 cm
photo © Eric Tabuchi.

 

Thomas Klimowski
Division, 2010, I, II, IV, paint on paper, 23 x 18 cm
Division, 2010, III, paint on paper, 46 x 18 cm
photo © Eric Tabuchi.

 

Tamara de Wehr
Paysage I, II, III, 2004, India ink on paper, 29,6 x 41 cm
photo © Eric Tabuchi.

 

Thomas Klimowski
Patterns, 2010, paint on paper
photo © Eric Tabuchi.

 

Laurent Le Deunff
Autoportrait dans la nature, 2008, pencil on paper, 41,3 x 36,8 cm
Autoportraits dans la nature, 2008, pencil on paper, 35,6 x 27,9 cm,
photo © Eric Tabuchi.

 

Laurent Le Deunff
Autoportrait dans la nature, 2008, pencil on paper, 41,3 x 36,8 cm
Autoportraits dans la nature, 2008, pencil on paper, 35,6 x 27,9 cm,
photo © Eric Tabuchi.

 

Fleur Noguera
Smoke, 2008, looping animation, 6!48!!. Direction and animation: Nicolas Lichtlé. Musical composition: Superpeur. Production: Centre d’art contemporain Chapelle Saint-Jacques / Saint- Gaudens, Frac Corse collection. Edition of 50: DVD + 1 drawing 18 x 27 cm, photo © Eric Tabuchi.

 

Anne Colomes
Cascade, 2009, felt on paper, 20 x 16 cm,
photo © Eric Tabuchi.