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Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Altadena Public Library Presents “Space Is A Doubt”: An Art Exhibition, Performance and Concert Dedicated to Author Georges Perec

Tuesday, December 22nd, from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., the Main library of the Altadena Library District will exhibit various artists and include live sculpture, performance dance, and a free concert.

6:30-7:30 p.m. – Live sculpture/performance dance “Breathe In, Breathe Out” by Marie-Noëlle Deverre
7:30-8:30 p.m. – Free concert “An Hour for Piano” (1971) by Tom Johnson with Samuel Boré on piano.

“Space is a Doubt” is inspired by the following text from Georges Perec. Every artist is showing pieces that are related from this text:

“I would like there to exist places that are stable, unmoving, intangible, untouched and almost untouchable, unchanging, deep-rooted; places that might be points of reference, of departure, of origin: […]

Such places don’t exist, and it’s because they don’t exist that space becomes a question, ceases to be self-evident, ceases to be incorporated, ceases to be appropriated. Space is a doubt: I have constantly to mark it, to designate it. It’s never mine, never given to me, I have to conquer it.

My spaces are fragile: time is going to wear them away, to destroy them. Nothing will any longer resemble what was, my memories will betray me, oblivion will infiltrate my memory, I shall look at a few old yellowing photographs with broken edges without recognizing them. […]

Space melts like sand running through one’s fingers. Time bears it away and leaves me with only shapeless shreds:

To write: to try meticulously to retain something, to cause something to survive: to wrest a few precise scraps from the void as it grows, to leave somewhere a furrow, a trace, a mark or a few signs.”

-Species of Spaces and Other Pieces, translation John Sturrock, Penguin books, 1997

p. 90-91

Georges Perec (1936-1982) is widely considered one of the most innovative and technically accomplished of twentieth-century fiction writers. Perec was a French novelist, filmmaker and essayist, and a key member of Oulipo, a literary movement advocating the invention of new, complex literary forms founded in 1960 by novelist Raymond Queneau and mathematician François Le Lionnais.

Exhibiting Artists:

Marie-Noëlle Deverre
“By exploring the relationship between body and envelope, I propose to dancers sculptures ready to wear, to put in movement; by engraving on cardboard packaging, I give a second life to these rubbishes of every day by transforming them into matrices.” www.marienoelledeverre.com

Tom Johnson – composer, performer and writer, was born in Colorado in 1939. He received his B. A. and Master of Music degrees from Yale University, and also studied with Morton Feldman. His works include: Rational Melodies, An Hour for Piano, Organ and Silence, and The Four Note Opera, which was premiered in New York City in 1972 and which has been produced over 60 times in at least nine different languages.

Samuel Boré is a French pianist, harpsichordist, vocal coach and artistic co-director of the Offrandes Collective, a professional ensemble dedicated to the research and promotion of contemporary music. Since 2013, Offrandes Collective has worked in several projects in collaboration with Tom Johnson.

Blandine Saint-Oyant “I am an artist who trained in the US and have been living and working in Pasadena for many years. I am an abstract painter and a colorist who works with poured paint. My work explores the relationship between fluidity and control, spontaneity and structure, calmness and exuberance. My process employs liquid oil paint poured against a shaded background that allows the different pigments to intermingle and fuse into visually striking patterns. After many years of painting practice, my process is largely improvisational. My aim is to create a space in which contrasting visual elements are interwoven into a fluid composition.” www.saintoyantstudio.com

Carolie Parker (on the series “Frame Story Series”, 2015) “This series grows out of a body of sculptural work constructed of throw-away materials and suggested by the ephemeral nature of the built environment in Los Angeles. The paintings incorporate this chaotic approach to city-building, combining random elements of composition with more formal structures.” www.carolieparker.com

Eric Zammitt “LA-based Eric Zammitt’s aesthetic contains slickly abstract sculpture and assemblage works that are constructed from tiny bits of Plexiglas. Like mosaics, Zammitt’s compositions form carefully structured areas of pattern and color, but the space-age media he employs make them decidedly futuristic. The artist cites “capturing a spirit of nature” as a primary goal, and though Zammitt’s formulations do occur to the viewer as entirely ethereal in their outlook, they are unavoidably, marvelously mechanical in their construction and effect”. – Iris McLister www.ericzammitt.com

Nadege Monchera-Baer “With her roots established in abstract painting, Nadege Monchera-Baer continues a sort of bifurcated exploration of complimentary and overlapping concerns as well in non-objective imagery, via numerous artworks that are chiefly defined by an emphasis on connections, repetition, atmospherics, emotion and most importantly, color itself as expressive mirrors of an internal undefined landscape. Whether it be large canvases or “hatchings” on mylar, her methodology is to work on multiple canvases simultaneously working various styles of abstraction in series. Chronologically the completion of these artworks may jump and skip over one another, yet in overview, they are fairly easy to group together via size and media. The more conceptual work also develops in series but often that is only recognized in hindsight as various ideas rise and submerge.” -Saatchi, art curator www.nadegemoncherabaer.com

Pascaline Doucin-Dahlke “My artistic research focuses on the definition of space, light, and graphic limits within a non-conventional approach through vibrant colors and textures on different types of supports that resonate through the painting. My artistic vocabulary has been influenced by early 20th century European and American Abstract Expressionist art movements. Pushing to the edge of abstraction, my paintings and digital work remains within a classic aesthetic harmony. As my personal conviction, I consider art, for both the artist and the viewer, an uplifting and challenging experience filled with emotions.” www.pascalinedoucindahlke.com

Valérie Daval – “I like to work in series with subjects constantly moving on the border between figurative and abstract art. Essentially based on space, shape, color, gesture and light, my paintings aim to be like a breath, an invitation to contemplation. Nature and art such as music and contemporary dance, are sources of inspiration for the in a landscape series, named after one piece of music (1948) from John Cage. For the Sunday afternoon pocket series I work with photographs from my childhood, including sewing patterns, plans or symbols to give free rein at the two-dimension space of the canvas.” Valérie is the artist curator and organizer for this event and can be contacted with questions regarding the exhibition’s theme at vdaval@yahoo.fr. Her website: www.valeriedaval.com

This event is free and open to the public. No reservations are required. The Altadena Library is located at 600 East Mariposa Street, Altadena. For more information please call (626) 798-0833. For a schedule of events, visit the library online at www.altadenalibrary.org.

 

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