Broken strings — Galerie NUNC!
“Broken Strings — Cordes Brisées” was the title of a solo exhibition i was invited to develop for the now defunct Paris-based Galerie Nunc (which lives on as endlessly cool Critères Editions).
As is the custom of every cultural show-and-telling, the following decodes a bit of how I shaped this show:
Based on an ancient symbol of our human ability to manipulate or to be manipulated, this site-specific installation was composed of ‘figures’ carved from thin sheets of plywood into life-sized, two-dimensional marionettes that danced and tumbled chaotically across the canvas of Galerie Nunc’s white Parisian walls
Guests to this exhibit were invited to directly participate in an interactive and ever changing exhibition.
A few of the interactive pieces from the show were modeled after the much beloved Mr. Potato Head, this free-to-play game is designed to echo fairway magic, inviting the public to a mix-n-match face-melting madness.
A neoplatonic play on the deeply symbolic spiritual allegory of Pinocchio, these various elements form a tapestry of self divined utopias and personal myths; offerings made with the belief that unconventional art can inspire others to think in radically different ways, in order to stimulate a greater awareness on relevant cultural, environmental, sociological, and political issues.
“By its strangeness, the unusual sense of detail, and its oneiric (dream-like) style, the artist makes nod to Flemish painting, as well as those of the Venetian school, thus ensuing a dialogue between the past and the present. In effect, Botkin endeavors to have us “see” an interior transformation, by finding plastic methods that obligate us, by force of their expression, to step out of our daily routines in order to stop, and reflect.”
(Constance Naubert-Riser Honorary Professor Université de Montréal)
PUPPETS WITH NO STRINGS
These works have a very sculptural quality about them, deeply informed by a lifetime fascination with masks and puppets.
I delight in how these works stand on their own, like a puppet set free from its master. These figures are not bound to the geometries of a canvas like a ball and chain; they’re free to use the entire space of the gallery itself as their playground; a form of installation art.
Check out this post for more about my relationship to installation-based works, an important aspect of how I think about art and what i do .
A puppet without strings is a potent symbol of freedom. To be liberated from external control or influence, implying one’s capacity to stand in authority or, more specifically, to become the author of one’s own experience.
GROSS
‘Grotesquerie’ is key.
This term refers to a quality of being grotesque, or having distorted, bizarre, and often absurdly exaggerated features. These qualities are often put to hard in my practice, evoking the strange, fantastic, or unnatural, while deeply challenging conventional notions of beauty and order.
These are fundamentally offerings from the shadow.
BUT WILL IT SELL?
I’ve not ever depended on meaningful financial compensation from this sort of show. That shoots me in the foot at times, but an occasional limp well serves my pimp walk game.
Galleries and museums are gated communities that asks one to step through a door that separates them from the outside world, generally via invitation. This is a very different process than creating art within the familiar public settings of streets, parks, and back alleys, sanctioned or not.
As such, I’ve always treated this type of exhibition opportunity with an experimental touch, guided by a simple question: how to work in the space between the wall, using common and affordable materials.
It is a big relief to remove the stress of needing to make profit from a show like this. Doing so has consequence however, especially in the pocketbook department, compelling a need for material affordability and very narrow windows of production.
TIME Lines
With every solo show, this being the fourth, severely limited production time lines name the game. For example, this body of work was completed in less than a month, fuelled by unhealthy amounts of coffee.
The cutouts were rendered over a three-week window in a Montreal-based studio. These works on wood are compact and durable enough so as to be poorly packed into the cargo compartment of an overseas flight, like an enormous Saran-Wrapped wooden street taco in all kinds of colourful sort. The larger ‘Mr. Potato Head-on-Acid’ interactive paintings were built directly in the NUNC space between shows.
For the past decade, roughly half of each year has been spent on volunteer-based work or non-commercial experiments of this sort. This includes projects like the PangeaSeed Foundation / SeaWalls projects, where people work together without compensation in and effort to protect what they love.
The other half of the years was spent making money by nearly any creative means possible while co-parenting two children, who have long since cut their own strings.
SPEED AND THE EPHEMERAL
Learning to work hard and fast was crucial early on an unconventional artistic path.
Working quickly has its own joys, but the speed of process doesn’t always play nice with a felt desire to more thoughtfully refine the technical qualities of the work over time. Paradoxically, it is not exactly a sacrifice in quality, as much as a sacrifice in the degree of ‘quality’. In place of quality however comes an emphasis on ephemerality, which has its own unique objective and subjective values.
Ephemerality in art is important. It challenges the notion of permanence and encourages us to appreciate the transient nature of life. It invites us to be more present to the moment, and to embrace the beauty of impermanence.
For me (and my practice), art is not static. Instead, it evolves over time, both reflecting and challenging ever-shifting societal values and perspectives.
CREATIVITY — AN ENDLESSLY RENEWABLE RESOURCE
The way I’ve chosen to work has become a powerful statement. It serves as counterpoint to what I perceive as bizarre game of naming price for the emperor’s new clothes. This seems to be standard operational procedure in the endlessly codified world of Art.
Creativity is an endlessly renewable resource of invaluable proportions.
GONE WITH THE WIND
Where does this work live now?
Not really sure about most of it.
Some of the marionette-like figures landed in a collection associated with a uniquely interesting tech school in Paris. With apologies, I’ve long forgotten the name.
Most of what was made is now gone with the wind, like a moment in time. That’s what happens when you break the cordées that bind.
Pinocchio has his own life now, and I for one, very much celebrate his release from bondage.
………….
Special thanks to Alla Goldshteyn and especially Pascaline Mazac, two arts administrator extraordinaire. Very fun times on those rompus trips around Paris.
