Mute Bodies- Eloquent Forms

MUTE BODIES - ELOQUENT FORMS

Visual art has no sound, but is it mute? It speaks to us in every tone - from soft suggestion to insistent roar; from tintinabulation to cacophony to explosion.

One of the most affecting museums I have ever experienced is the Musee du Tau in Rheims . Tucked away behind the famous cathedral it houses the sculptures, facades and gargoyles of the original cathedral which was heavily bombed in World War II. The objects stand proud and pitiful, transformed by their "wounds" into another form of art - they have transcended time and man's ultimate cruelty to speak of their resilience. The apostle figure merges into a block of stone from which it was once hewn, face scarred. The small gargoyle snarls, choked on a gob of molten lead, now frozen as testament to the fire that flowed through the gutters. Men and war have come and gone but these forms live on, reminding us.

The figures I have chosen to concentrate on this year as the core of my work tell a similar story. They were born in Classical times, in Greece between the fourth century BC and the fifth century AD., when the sculptors Pheidias and Praxiteles created their "realm of beauty" representing the human figure to its absolute peak of civilized perfection. Far from being remote and inaccessible through the perfect representation of human form, they move and breathe and exude life, the muscles and bones swelling under the skin, enhanced by the soft fall of drapery that describes them. My fascination is not just with the beautiful representation of these figures, their innate beauty, but with what remains of them in their struggle against the passage of time - their undying eloquence in the face of destruction. They are damaged, ravaged but still their underlying form and exquisitely fashioned anatomy speak powerfully to us. They strain, pull, step out gracefully, dance, seduce and die, encompassing both human frailty and strength which we immediately identify with as our own. They are miracles of time, indestructible.

In developing this body of work I have started with drawing as a primary source of expression and developed a form of textile work that combines the disciplines of drawing, embroidery and soft sculpture. I have recreated the body in its dimensional aspects through padding and stitching, incorporating the stitch as drawn line and using the layering of transparent fabrics to describe form.

The pieces have been informed by a series of collages that are the crystallisation of a process of examination of specific sculptural figures set against an architectural framework. In them I have endeavoured to distill the essence of the collage/drawing to enhance the figure/ ground relationship.

They also reflect on both a building up and breaking down of weave, stitch and line, becoming a commentary on the freeing of technical boundaries.

This exhibition is the embodiment of a path of progress through ideas, a path of discarding and rebuilding processes which serves ultimately to pay homage to the source material - Classical Greek sculpture - in a new and reconstructed form. The work attempts to stand on its own in terms of beauty and validity as echoes from the past that resonate strongly in the present - mute bodies that speak in eloquent forms.

Cresside Collette 1998.