Jon Bewley and Simon Herbert on Fri, 6 Mar 1998 20:19:50 +0100 |
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Syndicate: Cathy de Monchaux / L+ |
A new Locus+ project CATHY de MONCHAUX The Day Before You Looked Through Me On site from March 24th A site specific work for Cullercoats Metro Station, Tyne and Wear, UK "You're rushing to get your train, always late, half asleep, wishing you were somewhere else. In the station a photograph has appeared. It fills the whole wall. The image is of some foreign train station. The perspective of the tracks draws you in against your will. You can't quite focus on the blurred image. Moving closer, the surface reflects you walking into the scene. Maybe taking you off on an imaginary alternative journey. It was the day before you looked through me. A busy Saturday in a Parisian station. I had no train to catch, no people to meet. Aimlessly wandering in dream time, feeling as inconsequential as a ghost. On the platform lay a red carpet, a great slice of red, an illusion for the sensitivity of a footstep deemed to be special. In the distance, the end of the carpet railed pathetically onto the tracks, obstructing the path of the arriving train. I had a sense of impending carnage. Everybody disappeared, leaving me with this scene, as unbelievable as a dream. Anything was possible, in the optimism of the day before you looked through me." The Day Before You Looked Through Me is her first permanent public artwork, incorporating the use of photography on a monumental scale. A digitally manipulated image, 3.8m high x 6.2m wide, it shows a deserted railway station after an important ceremony. An abandoned red carpet on the platform, folded by the winds and sodden from the rain, spirals onto the tracks; the lights of an arriving train can just be seen on the the horizon. The stark, melancholic image retains the emotive and cerebral potency of de Monchaux's sculpture. We are reminded that the activity of travel involves expectation, disappointment and celebration. Reflective perspex placed over the image reflects the viewers' gaze, who can see themselves inserted into the tableaux, stood on a red carpet, awaiting a journey of their own. Image for The Day Before You Looked Through Me now on the L+ web site. Reception March 24th 6-8 upstairs cocktail lounge, Bay Hotel, Seafront, Cullercoats. Cathy de Monchaux, born in 1960, studied at Camberwell School of Art and Goldsmiths College in London. She is particularly well known as a sculptor who produces objects that create an air of disquiet in the viewer through an elegant combination of materials balanced in opposition; velvet and leather gripped in elaborate bronze talons. Ribbons, glass and paper balanced against lightly dusted steel. She has shown extensively in this country and abroad including recent one person exhibitions in Milan, Vienna, Paris, Zurich, New York and last year's successful exhibition at the Whitechapel in London. Her work is widely collected and is in many private and public collections including the Tate Gallery, Sculpture at Goodwood, British Council, Arts Council of England and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Oslo. The Day Before You Looked Through Me was curated and initiated by Locus+. The Day Before You Looked Through Me is supported by Nexus, ABSA North Tyneside Arts, Northern Arts, Arts Council of England and The Henry Moore Foundation. Locus+ is an arts organisation based Newcastle upon Tyne, England that develops new strategies with visual artists for different contexts and across formats. Jon Bewley or Simon Herbert Locus+ 17, 3rd Fl Wards Building 31 - 39 High Bridge Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 1EW UK t +44 191 233 1450 f +44 191 233 1451 e locusplus@newart.demon.co.uk www.locusplus.org.uk