THE AURA OF ABSTRACTION: I’m in a Window Mood

An on-line showcase by Lucy Cox

000 - Window Mood Title page — Film still, *Rear Window*, 1954.

Given the current Covid-19 lock-down gallery visits have been curtailed and so on-line presentations of exhibitions are a welcome substitute for the ‘real thing’. Or rather, a regular alternative as we are so used to viewing artworks on our mobile phones – perhaps even more than on the computer screen – that the ‘virtual’ experience of art during this pandemic constitutes a reinforced normality. But where this increased reliance on the tiny digital screen might prove salutary as we miss out on visiting the galleries is in emphasising the loss of the material reality of the work of art. We might need reminding that the physical impact, embracing surface qualities, visual weights and textures, the correct colour and the actual size of artworks in relation to the viewer is missing from the digital experience. In a curated space (let’s assume in one large room) we could view individual works close up and from afar, or consider one or more works in juxtaposition to others. We might be satisfied with the choice and arrangements of the artworks or critical of the curator’s decisions. Furthermore, we might be impatient and in a hurry, or ideally attuned to a slow contemplation that the best quality works inevitably deserve and demand. Either way, seeing and experiencing an object as curious as a work of art are beyond the capabilities of the digital, but creative and intriguing possibilities are still available to the medium.

012 - Ruth Philo - A Slow Parade - 2018 acrylic-on-paper_28x38cm.jpg — Ruth Philo – ‘A Slow Parade’ (2018). Acrylic wax and graphite on paper, 28 x 38 cm.

It has been a few years since I last read the poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke, so a re-acquaintance with his works was timely when artist, curator and podcaster Lucy Cox invited me to contribute two images to her blog, ‘The Aura of Abstraction’. Presenting a recent translation of Rilke’s ‘I’m in a Window Mood’ (the original is in French) adds an intriguing dimension to the two-dozen images selected and presented by Cox. As arranged on the web page the poem serves as a thoughtful precursor to the images that follow, although the intention is clearly not to requisition them as illustrations, but perhaps to provide pointers and prompts to consider the works. Most usefully, a spoken recording of the poem is also provided with the text and you can read the poem as you listen, or close your eyes and truly experience the verse in your mind.

001 - Laurence Noga - Double Violet Filtered Blue 2020.jpg — Laurence Noga – ‘Double Violet Filtered Blue’ (2020). Acrylic and collage on panel, 12 x 16.5 cm.

The 24 artworks that follow are, simply, to be looked at as no further commentary is added. Taking a prompt from Rilke’s poem, harmony will be perceived to varying degrees in the images, from the carefully arranged colour shape elements in Laurence Noga’s collages or EC’s more painterly conflations, in contrast to Ruth Philo’s or Johanna Melvin’s more pared down compositions.

011 - Johanna Melvin - Maquette 3 2020.jpg — Johanna Melvin – ‘Maquette 3’ (2020). Acrylic on linen, 50 x 40 cm.

006 - Kuai Lianhui - White Noises 25 painting-series-3 acrylic-and-ink-paint-on-paper4259cm2020-25.jpeg — Kuai Lianhui -‘White Noises 25 (painting series 3)’ (2020). Acrylic and ink on paper, 42 x 59 cm.

Elements of a purposeful and positive inconsistency (compatible contrasts) characterise Karl Bielik’s, Lisa Denyer’s and Jeff Dellow’s works. If the image or idea of the window frames a ruminatory and framing perspective, then the shallow spaces of Kuai Lianhui’s and Andrea V. Wright’s works press on the viewer’s eye space to create a tight and compressed sensation. Lucy Cox’s pieces echo the loosely geometric disclosures and ambiguous spaces of Melvin, Noga and Denyer to hint at a future collaboration that would be well in tune with current trends in abstraction. Huang Jun’s two works initially surprised me by their inclusion as they fuse figurative imagery with a painterly and gestural application of paint, but each is very cleverly interspersed with images from Denyer and EC to play off the visual liveliness found in their works. Seeing my own pieces in similar proximity to Dellow and Lianhui appropriately emphasised the interplay inherent in visual language that has been pared down to essentials where much, hopefully, can be implicit in inferred understatement.

014 - Karl Bielik - seek-25x20cms-oil-on-linen-2018.jpg — Karl Bielik -‘Seek’ (2018). Oil on linen, 25 x 20 cm.

007 - Andrea-v-Wright-empreinter-1-6-.2018.-accreted-latex-pigment.-28-x-28-cm.jpg — Andrea V. Wright -‘Empreinter 1-6’ (2018). Accreted latex and pigment, 28 x 28 cm.

A rewarding and worthwhile poem, like its visual counterpart, is always open to translation shifting meaning for a variety of potential readers. During the reading/viewing time we consider parts within the whole as well as the totality of the work. Responding to and ingesting a phrase within the structure might focus solely on a part in a text or an image, but the overall configuration has still to be resolved by the producer and the audience alike. For example, is the ‘bird’ appearing in the middle stanza of Rilke’s poem a thought that unexpectedly appears, asking for or wanting (depending on the translation) attention? Of course, the contemplative poet or reader is not the object of the bird’s attention. The bird is not aware of any observer, just as an incident in a visual image (abstract or figurative) has arrived devoid of relevance until the observer is primed to take something from any given situation when the conditions are right – by design or circumstance. Consequently, the actual and the imaginary meet the abstract, non-verbal conditions of contemplation with the promise of the unexpected integration beyond the self in concrete reality, avoiding the alienation commonplace between notions of ‘self’ and ‘other’. This is what Rilke consummately achieves.

013 - Lisa Denyer - Rousseau-2017.jpg — Lisa Denyer -‘Rousseau’, 2017. Acrylic, emulsion and collage on panel, 30 x 30 cm.

Potentially, I’m in a window mood, whereby the implied frame of the rectangular screen, printed page or artwork becomes a portal that comforts me in these strange and unaccustomed times.

016 Lucy Cox - .jpg — Lucy Cox -‘Construction (study)’ (2020). Watercolour on paper, 12 x 12 cm.

002 - Jeff Dellow - Pospects-2020-acrylic-on-panel-18x23-cm.jpeg — Jeff Dellow -‘Prospects’ (2020). Acrylic on panel, 18 x 23 cm.

025 - Huang Jun - What Can Save You? (Mortal Diary series) - Acryliconcanvas.jpg — Huang Jun -‘What Can I Do to Save You? (Mortal Diary series)’ (2020). Acrylic on canvas, 46 x 106 cm.

NOTES:

Two slightly different translations of Rilke’s poem are presented here. I have added the italics in the Petermann version to link with my comments above.

I’m in a Window Mood

I’m in a window mood today –

life seems to consist of simply looking.

I’m surprised by all the harmony I see,

intelligence as great as in a book.

Each bird that reaches into my view

with its flight asks for my consent.

And I give it. Inconsistency

used to terrify, now it comforts me.

You might find me in the middle of the night

having spent probably the entire day

surrendering to the inexhaustible window,