Zoe Mendelson
dal 8/11/2004 al 18/12/2004
Segnalato da
8/11/2004
Zoe Mendelson
Galerie Schleicher+Lange, Paris
Manners'. Her drawings, paintings and painted installations transform the gallery space into a parallel world, enticing the viewer with vivid and seductive imagery that deal with obsessions and fantasies. Investigating what the artist calls 'the culture of politeness', sexual imagery becomes sublimated and is hidden behind elaborate symbolic constructions.
Galerie Schleicher+Lange is proud to present 'manners' a solo show by London
born artist Zoë Mendelson. Presented in France for the first time, Mendelson
will show work that has been specially conceived for the gallery. Graduate of
the Royal College of Art in 2000, she has exhibited extensively across the UK.
Most recently she participated in 'Year Zero' at the Northern Gallery of
Contemporary Art, Sunderland (UK).
Zoë Mendelson's drawings, paintings and painted installations transform the
gallery space into a parallel world, enticing the viewer with vivid and
seductive imagery that deal with obsessions and fantasies. Investigating what
the artist calls 'the culture of politeness', sexual imagery becomes sublimated
and is hidden behind elaborate symbolic constructions.
While obsessions are a preoccupation in her work, obsessiveness also enters into
the realm of Mendelson's artistic production. Again and again she re-draws and
recombines the elements in her drawing, until satisfied that they appear
seamless, discarding numerous preliminary drawings in the process.
Spare outline pencil drawings are combined with intensely hued images of flora
fauna and opulent Victorian interiors. The artist weaves precise fantasies with
conflicting roots in both children's book illustration and erotic drawing,
creating visuals that tap into our shared memories and anxieties.
Whereas flora and fauna in her work are lusciously rendered, it is only
gradually that we become aware of the presence of teasing girls in suggestive
poses. These female protagonists are rendered as, hollowed out, empty outline
drawings, which are encompassed by a web of lines across the picture surface.
The girls' poses and expressions, drawn from the formulaic repertoire of adult
entertainment and internet porn, seem devoid of any interior life. The viewer is
given the impression of having entered the sphere of desires and fantasies, in
which the external reality is only visible as a schematic outline of the pencil
drawings.
Opening 9.11.2004 6.30pm 9pm
Galerie Schleicher+Lange
12 rue De Picardie 75003 Paris France