BUT WHO IS THIS?


La Maison Rouge is to be closed by its creator Antoine de Galbert at the end of 2018. No, not because of a financial crisis, but just because he feels that he can’t go any further and needs to create something new. This is all quite disconcerting when you go to see Hélène Delprat’s exhibition « I Did it My Way » a bric-a-brac of ideas, collages, installations and a pathway through the unreal. As I had not (intentionally) looked up to see who she is, I had one of the biggest shocks I can remember when walking into the exhibition….I saw this….

Les (fausses) conferences , 2017
Les (fausses) conferences , 2017

Not only was it extraordinary real (I’m sure I saw a finger move » but the title was « Les (fausses) conferences, 2017 Mannequin à l'effigie de l’artiste » I don’t think that this needs translating.  The likeness of the artist? Who was « it » ? A man? We are hearing so much about transgenders at the moment,  those who want to change their sex « I don’t feel comfortable as a woman » …was she part of this world?

The exhibition was created specifically for La Maison Rouge. We walk into the first large gallery where at once we see dark films, mirrors, vast paintings, at times with hilarious titles, cinema….can it be serious? Or is the exhibition supposed to be funny? From what I saw, I can only imagine that Helene Delprat must have a wonderful sense of humour and certainly does not take herself seriously, although perhaps her work is to be taken seriously…

Grrrrrrrr, 2017
Or perhaps here?


Am I there?


Le Sphinx de Nicole Stéphane, 2017 (Back of "Grrrrrrr...)
There are so many references in her work. There are moments when you feel you are on a film set as a flashlight is dashing around the room and you become an actor....



Animals accompany you. Birds are watching television…all seems to be like a mad hatter’s tea party…zany…

Portrait pourri remix 5, 2004
Remind you of some artist?



Dracula is in there - I think





Ce que le Chevalier couvert de cendres a raconté à son retour, 2015
Peinture pourrie, 2014



Grand Transparet 3, 2012





Grotesques, 2009
part of Grand Transparet 3, 2012
part of Grand Transparet 3, 2012
La Chambre des oiseaux qui s'ennuient dans l'expo d'LND, 2017
2015
Cylbalum Mundi-Pamphagus, 2013



Bad Taste, Donkey burger, 2007
4 columns - L'oeuvre sculpté de Bouvard et Péchet, 2017


 Then we walk into a gallery which is filled with masks in glass cases...




 










 
Mitre, 2007

 Or this video showing the artist in action...
When I came home and before starting to write this chapter, I did some research on her work. There are many interviews with her and without any doubt she is, from her biography a well known French artist of today. Also a teacher. Lives and works in Paris. Residency at Villa Médicis, Rome, from 1982 to 1984. Teaching at École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris since 2014. What is even more striking is that she was born in 1957 so that makes her 60. In this exhibition she is androgynous and without age.


I did it My Way, 2017

(Unfortunately I was so taken aback, I forgot to photographs certain titles....)
As you can see from this, the exhibition did not finish there...
The Advertisement for the exhibitions...

But what a name! « Inextricabilia » The dictionary on my Mac tells me this.

Inextricable.                       Impossible to disentangle or separate : the past and the present are inextricable.

So how could this be a description for what I was about to see. Looking at the long list of artists there is nothing that might connect an Art Brut sculpture by Judith Scott with a  statue from Congo, or a reliquat of the XVll century, or perhaps a mask created by Louise Bourgeois 


 
Judith Scott's work (see below as well)


Louise Bourgeois "We Love You", 2001

Archbishop François Paul de Neufville de Villeroy (France) Reliquary, XVll

Chen Zhen "Innocent Light" 2000. Child's bed in plastic tubes...
 and yet despite their origins in different lands, cultures, expressions and eras, there are surprising overlaps in the materials and techniques used.  All these objects display striking analogies in the entwining, entangling and knotting of hemp cord, hair, strips of leather, gold threads, blades of grass, raffia, rope and fabric …this said, lets have a look at some of them….


Looks like a mummy made od rope
Pierrette Bloch, 1980 - Plaited horse mane
Pascak Tassini -No Title" 2015 Different fabrics


Looking down on the gallery

Another view

Wishes of The House of Mary in Ephese (Turkey) - knotted paper, 2010

Annette Messager "My wishes under a net" 1997-1999...Cord, netting

Healers prophesy - west Africa Mineral, vegetal and different materials

Healers object

Judith Scott, 1994 - wool and other material

Giuseppe Versino - Textile clothing 20th C

Louise Bourgeois, Arch of Hysteria, 2000 Suspended tissues

Catherine Boch, Constellation 2012, worked on a sewing machine

Bonneval's dress 1938-48

Arthur Bispo do Rosario Bresil : Presentation coat (no date)

Judith Scott, wool, wood...1995

Judith Scott - different works
Healer's Tunic

Magic Bag Nkisi Ma bi ala - 1933

made from chicken claws, bird skull, shells, crabs claws...and different fibres

Horse crane (Nigeria) before 1996 : different fibres

Tunic and different assemblages in different materials

Judith Scott

Close up of Annette Messager "My wishes are under the net" - see above

XVlll C reliquary in tissues, stones and metal

Heide De Bruyne - Assemblage in wood, vegetal paper...no date

Assemblages

a larger view


One of the Wishes from
The House of Mary in Ephese (Turkey) - knotted paper, 2010
There was still quite a lot to see - but I was beginning to feel decidedly mixed up by the diversity of what the morning had brought...

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