Syndicate: Cathy de Monchaux / L+

[Jon Bewley and Simon Herbert <Locusplus@newart.demon.co.uk>]

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