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The
title comes from one of Louis Aragon’s book. The general concept results
from a study on the personal identity, specific to the work of art,
generated by the reading of a book from the philosopher Stéphane Ferret,
" the Boat of Thésée ". It raises the question to know at which
time of repairs, change of parts or modifications, the boat is still the
same boat, during its existence. The reflection of the artist is here to
know, taking into account evolutions, additions, cut-off, destructions,
deteriorations and disappearances of constituting elements, if the work is
always itself during its existence.
The general set of themes in the works constituting Peinture Roman is a kind
of journey in imaginary spaces or places (an archipelago, the forest, woman,
literature...). It is a romantic approach to the way of looking at art,
similar to the manner of the " New Novel " in France, where the
object, the situation, the glances related to them, are privileged compared
to an action or a possible fiction, told in a linear way. This way to
apprehend life and the pictorial work, lead to a fragmentation of matter by
refusing an " history ", and focusing on the place or the actor of
novel, and by then privileging the description of landscape where the actor
is, its reading, its sexuality..., without taking into account general
events. The
basic formal principle is the following:
A rectangle (or double square) of 40X80 centimeters in width, gives a scale
of binary formats (20X20, 20X40, 40X40, 40x80, 80x80, 80x120, etc). This
form (40x80) is divided into three vertical parts and three horizontal
parts, which give nine equal parts of 26,66666X 13,333333, which gives a
ternary scale in the binary rectangle. These basic elements are use in a
systematic way in the work (paintings, drawings, etc). This constant in the
organization of surfaces allows each element that constitutes the work to
coincide with all the other elements of the project, whatever its position.
The juxtaposition of the elements can thus be modified, and each time a new
graphic rhythm is thus perceptible, without modifying the general direction
of the work. The installation of elements of either binary rhythms or
ternary one, allows a complex rhythmic, but nevertheless coherent from one
part of the work to another.
The interior construction of each painting (or drawing) is marked, allowing
rhythmic (binary or ternary, or assembly of both) which can be found
throughout the assembly and part of the assembly. The addition or the
withdrawal of an element or several of these elements does not disturb the
coherence of the group selected. Quite the opposite, it allows the organizer
(owner of several paintings for example) to create new rhythms each time.
In certain parts of the ensemble, the author used the musical system of the
hémiole (Baroque time in Europe) which consists of making coincide in
parallel a binary rhythm and a ternary one:
1/3: 1-2-3-1-2-3-1-2-3-1-2-3-
One can superimpose a binary rhythm while falling down on the same beat with
regular intervals
1/3: 1-2-3-1-2-3-1-2-3-1-2-3-
1/2:
1-2-1-2-1-2-1-2 -.....
Exploitation of these various formal proposals generated by binary and
ternary rhythms can be found in each part (chapter or not) of the project
and it allows to keep a plastic coherence of the ensemble no matter how many
paintings are selected. That allows also a significant variety of solutions
in the organization of elements, from two to many. |
