In 2007, Klaus Ottman conceived of « Bodies of Desire »; a two-person show of works by Willem de Kooning and Chloe Piene. Following this, Piene was prompted to take on the challenge of willfully collaborating with another artist, in the stead of a solitary statement.
The result of this collaboration, premiering at Galerie Nathalie Obadia, is that Piene has chosen and arranged heretofore unseen and little known works by the surrealist artist Hans Bellmer as both a pair and counterpoint to her own. Their work has been previously discussed in relation to each other, but this show marks the first time in which they will be presented together in a shared space.
Chloe Piene has shown internationally throughout Europe and the United States. Her solo exhibition at the Carré d'Art - Musée d'Art Contemporain, in Nîmes last year was widely received. She was featured in the 2004 Whitney Biennial and her work is owned by institutions and private collections worldwide such as the Centre George Pompidou, Paris, the Sammlung Hoffmann, Berlin, the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, and the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis. A 104 page hardcover monograph published by Carré d'art - Musée D'art Contemporain de Nîmes, and distributed by DAP, is available upon request.
With great credit and appreciation to Marcel and David Fleiss of Galerie 1900 - 2000.
1
The clasping and unclasping hands near the pubis on the stone slab
Then rest
Near the thighs, near the crotch
White moonlight filtering in
The woman never has a face - but - she has a pubis
He says - clasping and unclasping "like the rhythm of a heart"
It is the only time the heart appears - but no face
A great story
2
Moments, time, world, punctuated by
On.
And then more. On. And so on. On.
There is no dissolve - all stops - nothing between - a
distinction made by darkness. Real jet black - that you can feel.
Darkness - maybe - under the sea? What is it? Head buried in a
hole. The hole is already too solid. The sky is too thin. Amniotic
fluid. Ectoplasm. Hemoglobin. Fascia. Oil. Black bogs. Silt water.
The trickle of blood in the movie version of Death in Venice - is
jet black, not brown, not red.
3
The hymen breaking
The hymen is ethereal and never felt only an idea no real barrier
only a marker for the farrier a means of marriage proposal the
possibility of staying near the Shide island and painting the irish
landscape for the rest of time