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Atellerhaus Hoeherweg – Duesseldorf, Germany
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| Pat De Caro in Duesseldorf Our House The Atelierhaus Hoeherweg, Duesseldorf, Germany The group of work entitled OUR HOUSE was created during a three month stay as a visiting artist in the Atelierhaus Hoeherweg, Duesseldorf (Germany) during the fall 2005. “Our House” ref Oil paintings on glassine paper were made as individual pieces while others I configured into complex arrangements. I filled my studio with paintings, and in the process, a narrative structure evolved among the images; the imaginary linking of events extending from the walls onto the floor where the action unfolded as well. Every day I would rearrange or alter the paintings’ placement thereby changing one’s experience of the room. My experience of living in the Rhineland area of Duesseldorf and Cologne was very rich and became the inspiration for my new work. I am indebted to the hospitality of the permanent tenants of the Verein Ateliers Hoeherweg, the Duesseldorf artists who live and work there with a commitment to foster this artistic exchange. Pat De Caro in Milan Incognito Bazart Arte Contemporanea, Milan Italy Milano–Prada, Alpha Romeo, Pirelii, the associations one has with Milan link at the apex of design and style. Also known in Europe as Italy's capital of contemporary art, Milan is host now to Pat De Caro's work in oil on glassine, work that hovers on the edge between two and three dimensional art and toys with illusional and actual space, while effectively using transparency and layered surfaces to create narratives that express time and motion, in psychological and emotional context. The narrative quality of this work, presented in Milan as an installation, is not accidental and pertains to De Caro's understanding of the way in which visual language is interpreted, narratively, through symbol and metaphor in a tradition that extends into the present from the time of Giotto. Asked what the prime satisfaction gained from exhibiting in Italy, The Opening on October 8th was crowded and celebratory. There were friends of the artist, artists, art critics, curators and Milanese art lovers all swirling in and out of the installation space like dancers to a ball. To see such a lively and engaged response to this Seattle artist's work so far in so many ways from Seattle was an eye opening, heart warming experience. Albeit unrealistic, I would strongly suggest that in the future everyone who enjoys going to openings in Seattle come to Seattle artist's openings abroad, as I did. The work glows under the light of a bigger and older world, and, I think, grows from it. This body of work, which was also seen in part at Francine Seder's gallery last March, was curated in Milan by Gabriella Brembati and Pino Diecidue, whose choices and interpretation of space and lighting presented another dimension of the work. The catalog will be available in Seattle at the Francine Seders Gallery. Drake Deknatel, Berlin 11.10.04 Pat De Caro in Seattle Frozen moments of childhood Francine Seders Gallery, Seattle Memories are fluid, and none more fluid than memories of childhood. The triumph of Pat De Caro’s painting is her ability to freeze memory without slowing it down. The situations she creates are fluid yet momentous, deeply symbolic and yet casual. Her figures are shadows. They lack weight but not substance. Because of the way she painted them, in ash-black oil paints on overlapping sheets or transparent paper, they seem to be both grazing the surface and dipping into the deep of primal need and desire. Collectively titled “Incognito”, these paintings are a deft attempt to deal with what is hidden, the first knowledge of the body, in Freud’s terms, a childish id being suppressed by the civilizing chill of the superego. It’s well-traveled ground, and to some extent , discredited, even though no description Even though they weren't’ close to singular , De Caro’s investigation of Freudian first principles would be genuine contribution to contemporary art’s image world. In her scenes of anonymous, universal childhood- snapshots in the mind’s eye- we see ourselves turning away from what we know. “It’s lonely to live in the body,” Allen Ginsberg once observed. Like all of us, he learned that early. “Alone” (47 inches high by 42 inches wide) features a solitary boy standing in a tub and clinging to his teddy. The scene is assembled to resemble three badly shuffled cards in a transparent deck. First there’s the tub, dark with a soiled white rim and dark water inside. Then on an overlapping paper is the child, his back to us, clutching the soft teddy, tender stokes turning his fur into a well-worn blur and giving its features a comfortably pummeled look. Only partially covering the child is the sheet on which the shower curtain is drawn, dark color collecting in its crevices and the suggestion of use bleaching out the expanses between the folds. In another painting (“Wagon”, 50 inches high by 48 inches wide), a boy shares his untended vehicle with a snake: welcome to the enthralling power of the phallus. Because the demands of civilization and the demands of instinct are out of sync, the purity of his enjoyment can’t last long. Nor can the struggle that ensues be ducked. As the child discovers (“Sad Boy,” 70 inches by 54 inches wide), a shallow wading pool is no place to hide from the snakes doubled and curled around themselves on a sheet of paper beneath him. The weight of what he’s dealing with tugs at his body, weighting it down. The sheets of paper sometimes serve as representations of time. A masked girl (“Dead Teddy”, 62 inches high by 49 inches wide) stands in a time funnel of her own making. Her hands are both raised and lowered as she covers over her emotion, the teddy at her feet. Teddy recovered (“Toilet with Snake”, 40 inches high by 42 inches wide), the girl clutches him as she stares through his fur into her future, ignoring or trying to ignore the snake curling out of the toilet behind her. The solidity of the objects- wagon, wading pool, swing, tub, toilet and toilet paper on the tank top- contrasts with the fragility of the children. Emotionally dense and complex content becomes light in De Caro’s hands, as if she were painting butterflies. But what is truly saves these scenes from being unbearable is their beauty. All these paintings with their layers of transparency, the naked need, the hiding, are beautifully done. by Regina Hacket |
ers to the first universe of childhood and how we experience awareness of ourself to domestic surroundings.
Pat responded that it has to do with the seriousness and respect accorded the work and the way that art is seen and appreciated in a society with a thousand years of history of looking at art and appreciating art.