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Cartography of interior spaces

Diversity begins with the choice of format. In the Têtes series, the format is defined by the standard dimensions of Arches paper: the vertical portrait orientation suits the subject. Are we seeing masks, hairdos, camouflage or deformations? The expressionist treatment appears to completely dominate the nature of the theme. On the one hand, in the largest works, which are at least twice as wide as they are high, the format evokes the landscape experience and obliges the viewer to read horizontally. The broad Japanese papers used for their composition are prepared, broken tip and modified by collage, thereby reconciling heterogeneous bits and pieces. Abstract, evoking oriental parchments, the vast images open up like territories on which the forms delineate the cartography of intimate, unexpected interior spaces.

The formal dichotomy existing between the geometry of the sequences and the movements of irregular lines — calligraphic references or graffiti — creates a tension that is sustained by all the constituents of the picture. Wide, free, wavy lines interrupted by broken ones are in opposition to the structured marks beneath the full, solid rectangles. These lines inscribe the risks the artist has taken, risks recaptured at each moment in the elaboration of the work until its completion. The finesse, the lightness and the delicacy of the Japanese paper are underlined by the immediacy of the movement, one could even say, by the urgency of the motion, which has left a trace on it.

The particularly sober chromatic treatment of the subjects furthers the contrast. Thus, black and white dominate the series and confer undeniable expressive power on it. In some works, the dynamism of opposites is broken or modified by accents and coloured fields. There is bright red especially in the rectangular masses perceived as solid colour: there are ochre and neutral tones applied liberally on surfaces of different sizes, while less saturated bluish tones play on the subtlety of transparency. The restricted pallet, in contrast to the form, seems reduced to the bare minimum.

Unity and unicity

 
The images flow from a process. Each composition, for which there is no ready-made model nor predefined concept, emerges from an intuitive approach. It results from doing. The pictorial order does not represent an idea: it is linked to the creative act that translates an emotion and makes it visible.
The process involves several stages among which is making a plate using the principles of collage from heterogeneous elements: pieces of printed paper, recycled cardboard, pieces of discarded steel, and so forth. Catherine Farish gleans her inspiration from discards, not from “noble” materials. Her quest is more authentic than pretentious. Smudges, scratches, scarring, erosion and imperfections in the materials contribute to the meaning of the work. It is precisely by using recuperated objects that strange signs can be superimposed and, in this way, become the bearers of meaning. There are manufactured forms, markers of current industrial society; there are forms marked by the wear and tear of time, and finally, there are the impressions made by the artist. Although the objet trouvé is interpreted and transformed by its integration into the composition and by the plastic treatment it is given, it introduces clues about the context in which the work was created.
It should be pointed out that a part of the picture (the part stemming from recuperated items) refers to a tale that already exists. This tale not only precedes artistic creation, but goes beyond the very field of art. In this way, the artist facilitates collaboration with other domains, indirectly participating with other manufacturers. The presence of the other is intentional, sought-after and utilized in conformity with the uses established by ready made, which was reformulated in their own way by the proponents of Pop Art or arte povera. Farish tempers this intrusion, however, by integrating it into other elements. She creates precedents, roots or supports -  in short, the premises for breaking the white page to create the work.
Openness to the other, to the outsider, and the welcome given to anonymous contributions make Farish’s approach permeable to her environment at a physical, human, cultural and social level.
The paper support is light, discrete, malleable, easily changeable and nomadic. It can be displaced or modified by receiving collage elements, for example, and this can be done before or after pressing. The support material — paper — and the tool — the press — are both bearers of the graphic arts tradition. They are among the residual aspects of printing. While history, environment and happenstance are all included in creating the calligraphic plate, they are also present in preparing the support medium. Randomness plays a role as well during the actual printing process since this stage includes a number of unpredictable elements and accidents. The let-it-be and let-it-go approach, the ability to receive the emerging image and let it exist, are necessary in an approach that rests on the process itself. Doubt must be tolerated and one must continue despite it, and with it, to the very end of the creative path, letting the image appeal as the printing reveals it, with all its attributes arising from control and unexpectedness.
Since they have undergone a parallel creation process, there is a resonance between several pictures, as though the impetus of their genesis were spread out on several pages. Thus, a single gesture has repercussions on several spaces. Such intense emotion calls for large spaces. The interest in multiplicity is fully justified, but remains confined to the process itself, which involves numerous stages, each one of which regroups several heterogeneous fragments. The image produced is unique since the very real fragmentation of the surface and that of the process yield to the unity and unicity of the work.

Tales of a voyage

The representation infiltrates the picture, thereby making it possible to recognize the form of a Tête, for example. Admittedly, the abstract image prevails most often, but both types of images make an expressive tale visible: clarity and content are less limited to the reference than to the impact given by the strength of the language, to the point of being moving. Hybrid cartography, the hybridization of lyric abstraction, of geometry, of representation, of collage, impressions, reminiscences: these different marks recorded on paper for the viewer to seize are a graphic translation of emotions, impulses, passions, and fragility: in short, of the human experience.
Mastery of the language and the current eclectic context foster versatility and freedom in executing a work. For Farish, the direct style which is gestural, incisive, and trenchant, mingles with the detailed work of the sections, the Stages, the juxtaposition of delicate features and the numerous variations and applications of colours. The diversified pictures are, strong and even brutal at times incorporating highly saturated coloured fields as well as black, dense forms. Their disparity also includes undeniable finesse, a subtle use of transparency, fluid gestures, a complex mixture of marks that have been found, or opaqueness and rare materials, of depth and lightness. Reminiscences of life-engraved experiences, the images unfold like the tales of a voyage or the stages of an itinerary.
Each work intrinsically encloses the comings and goings of internal/external relationships. Each one contains visual qualities belonging to the compulsion that made it take shape. The work is also linked to the context in which it fits and to the gaze that is brought to bear on it. The mixed techniques executed by Catherine Farish express the artist’s need to translate emotion through images. They speak of the intensity of the instant, of the creative process, of the strangeness and extreme pleasure to be derived from a visual language. Reminiscences, both near at hand or far away, veiled or luminous, gentle or violent, all express the cartography of inner spaces and intimate places that appear on the surfaces before us in a complex geography upon which we will reflect for a long time. For a long time indeed.

CHRISTIANE BAILLARGEON

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