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frank elbaz: DAVIDE BALULA - LE COMPAS DANS L'OEIL - 27 Feb 2010 to 23 Mar 2010 Current Exhibition |
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Davide Balula, River Paintings, Douro, Porto, 2010
Sediments on canvas 95 x 76 cm, Unique |
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Davide Balula A Compass In the Eye Exhibition from February 27 to March 23rd, 2010 Tuesday-Saturday 11am-7pm Opening on Saturday, February 27th Davide Balula�s Compass In the Eye seems to evoke both a pupil�s mischief gone wrong as well as the artist�s ability to work without the measuring tool. Instead of geometric shapes and accurate proportions though, Balula compasses here literally the material traces of a Heraclitean reality: halfway between protophysics and abstract expressionism, the artist establishes an assisted topography of chance where, based on pre-determined conventions and protocols, the artistic intention combines itself with the contingency of the world. Hence, his River Paintings (2009-2010) depict on re-cropped canvases the random deposit of alluvia sampled in the Seine river (Paris), the East River (New York) or the Douro (Portugal); Mold Painting (2009) stages the oblique itinerary of artificially grown mildew; The Burnt Painting (Portrait) (2010) exposes the unforeseeable irregularities of a wooden surface consumed by fire; finally, Accelerated Aging of Blue Paper (2010), terror of the shrewd conservator, anticipate the effects of natural decay of the chromatic pigments�all these organic abstractions embodying the active collaborations of the amused artist with the irresistible forces of entropy, this law of thermo-dynamics that states the increasing disorder of the systemworld. While for the first time in Balula�s formal course all works presented here investigate flatness, they relate truly to photography and its inherent gestures � from the image development (the parasite mushrooms, oxidation of the ink), the cropping of the chosen composition (the unconscious motifs of the fluvial sediments), to the constitution of a negative (Imprint of The Burnt Painting (Portrait) (2010)) � as much as to painting or drawing and their essential faktura. The object of representation, rather than composed from scratch, turns out a fortunate finding, seized at the right moment in the ceaseless flux of natural forms. Voluntarily one-eyed views, the vestiges of Balula�s eye (this same eye that artists are said to have) extend their sight to what conventionally stands off-frame; or rather, the ambivalent indetermination placed at the core of vision includes in its socket the concrete process of his creations: the medium reduced to its most rudimentary state, i.e. the mere physical support such as countertop, or a cardboard desk blotter (Untitled, 2010), bearing the accidental residue of the artist�s pieces, in turn becomes a piece itself. In an intriguing dialectic of presence-absence, the diverse incidents (stains, cuts, colorations), performative markers of these �works not showed� (do they actually exist?) form the archives in absentia of this art of ordered dislocation. The French idiom "avoir un compas dans l'oeil," literally, "to have a compass in the eye" refers to one's ability, without the help of the instrument, to correctly assess measurements and distances. B�atrice Gross For more informations, please contact Daphn� : +33 (0)1 48 87 50 04 / [email protected] galerie frank elbaz 7 rue saint claude 75003 Paris France T + 33 1 48 87 50 04 F + 33 1 48 87 52 93 www.galeriefrankelbaz.com [email protected] |
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