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Take flight in Chine Pierre’s space.

 

Materials and lights seen through the eyes of a bird in full flight, dizzied by the breadth of the sky and the infinite ether. The azure wrapped in carefree blue sometimes binds with the waters, sometimes breaks with the earth. The immaculate plenitude of the atmosphere comes to taunt the peninsulas, hills and pixelated edifices of materials, teeming with textures. Architectural structures sometimes float in the immensely vast space, suspended from a horizon line that lets the sky speak, while others bear the overwhelming call of the celestial vault howling its desire to escape, which echoes unconstrained.

"An eternity teased by the moment" wrote Victor Hugo in his poem Birds. Seeking to produce both narrative and emotional possibilities, the notion of space-time is manifest in Chine Pierre's work; space as freedom, time as eternity. Her pictorial work creates "a space, a place in which the spectator can project himself to see a story, arouse an emotion, which he himself produces.” Nicolas de Staël wrote: "I do not oppose abstract painting and figurative painting. A painting should be both abstract and figurative. Abstract as a wall, figurative as a representation of a space." If some of Chine Pierre’s “Landscapes” echo the Sicilian Landscapes of Nicolas de Staël, others more vaporous evoke those of Zao Wou-ki. There is also an impressionist touch, and a hint of Turner's tumultuous and luminous landscapes. Passionate about writing, Chine Pierre infuses her works with a narrative side so that in "Factorial" and "Patchwork", parts of the paintings are deliberately interchangeable, creating new stories for each possible combination. Words are also important. Taken from personal notes or written by individuals known to the artist, Chine Pierre exploits them by redrawing them and by arranging them, mostly on the edges of the painting, according to what her inspiration dictates. Chine Pierre's stylistic freedom lies in the use of unconventional tools, a multiplicity of atypical techniques and materials. “I use anything I can get my hands on. Why? Because, often in life, I didn't have the right tools when I felt the need to create. In the end, it all works out well." Rarely using brushes but rags instead, preferring by far the feel of acrylic paint, the artist makes use of other unusual objects such as a fork and knitting needle: "Something that will leave a mark in the painting.” Combined with the techniques of gluing, scratching, smearing and stamping, these unusual accessories provide textured or blurred effects, impasto, gradation, glaze and wash. The most familiar items of everyday life are thus transformed into true artistic elements of composition. Eclectic collages of used clothing, jacket buttons, various fabrics, papers from old magazines or written notes are testament to the artist’s willingness to recycle the materials she uses. The creative process of Chine Pierre is not unlike the one adopted by Arte Povera artists, who use cheap resources to free themselves from economic constraints.

Beyond the desire to convert materials, the question of incorporating elements with an emotional resonance comes into play: "In my paintings, there are always intimate things. Pieces of life. Mine as well other people’s (...) So much so that in my paintings many people meet and cohabit.” And in that sense, the most important dimension in Chine Pierre's work is that of human interactions. Even if they are not always depicted, there is always one or more individuals embodied by bits and pieces taken from intimate objects. It is not about itemizing a specific vision of the world or a pictorial narration which would be specific to the artist and centered around her own singularity. Instead, the painting becomes an object of relationship, opened to spectators and individuals alike. Her "Portraits”, produced with a spontaneous motion and derived from sgraffitowithin the paint, quickly applied to the surface, thereby renewing it, testify to the artist's desire to freeze in eternity a moment of proximity with a person rather than the physical resemblance of the latter. 

Thus, between the unaltered immensity of the skies and the small details brought by collages and textures, Chine Pierre produces a universe that is at once raw and tender, light and solid, rich and refined. Stylistically unclassifiable, favoring a spontaneous creative process and made with so-called "cheap" materials, the painting is above all an object of emotional and collective sharing. It is a space in which we’re all invited to find refuge and chase after a story or a sensation, far from the harshness of the real world, too unfair, too foolish, as Camus described it in Caligula: "Now I know. This world, such as it is, is unbearable. Therefore I need the moon, or happiness, or immortality, I need something which is perhaps demented, but which is not of this world."

 

Sarah Noteman, critique d'art

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