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Lonely hearts club >> Brigitte Radecki marries text and painting by KEITH MARCHAND
This chilling bit of prose is scrawled onto the gallery wall. It is accompanied by two canvases, both streaked with bold, gestural marks that resemble a vigorous written language. The diptych is titled, "Violence, no. 1." On another wall, four paintings are displayed vertically. These canvases are minimal and still. They quietly work together to form a relentless arc that works its way up the wall. Nearby, more words: "He sat staring at it without knowing why until he noticed that it was lengthening in rapid jerks, not as shadows usually lengthen. He grew frightened and looked up quickly at the monument..." On now at the Leonard and Bina Ellen Gallery of Concordia University is an exhibition by Montreal-based artist Brigitte Radecki. Titled Miss Lonelyhearts, it is an installation pairing text and painting. The words are written directly onto the walls of the gallery, amid 15 new paintings by the artist. The text is based on Nathanael West's satirical novel Miss Lonelyhearts, the story of a columnist for the lovelorn who becomes enmeshed in the pathetic lives of several of his correspondents. The installation comprises several series of works, loosely based on the art of the Modernist painters. Many of the usual suspects are handled by Radecki, including Kline, Malevich, Rothko and Twombly. Much of the pantheon of abstract art is plundered, and most heavily represented are the works of the Abstract Expressionists. This choice is important, as this is the art form that most embodies the crusade to rid painting of any narrative meaning. The text accompanying each section of the show forms a conceptual bridge that connects one series of paintings to the next. And, without pressure to view the exhibition in any particular order, the series allows for a non-linear narrative to develop. In Miss Lonelyhearts, Radecki exposes the limited capacity--of both text and painting--to communicate. Navigating the void between written word and visual object, the artist permits a reading of painting through established works, while furnishing an altogether different layer through the textual quotes. Significantly, a close look at Radecki's paintings reveals that she has not reproduced any one work in particular. Rather, she has caricatured the artists' various characteristics and styles. She has entered her own voice into the process; both text and painting are supplemented with the addition of an entirely new dimension. This dimension hovers just below the surface of all that the viewer experiences. It is at this level that Radecki becomes more than a copyist. Through the act of echoing other works, she has established another voice. By using Modernist painting and displaying it alongside the text of Nathanael West, Radecki is forcing the hand of a traditionally non-narrative element. With the paintings serving as a pictorial landscape for the text, Radecki is challenging the way we see art in the late 20th-century. Miss Lonelyhearts is on at the Leonard and Bina Ellen Gallery until Sept. 5. 1400 de Maisonneuve W. 848-4750
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"Their hands were covered with slimy blood and the lamb slipped free. It crawled off into the underbrush. As the bright sun outlined the altar rock with narrow shadows, the scene appeared to gather itself for some new violence."