Abstract:
This essay focuses on exploring multiplicity, heterogeneity, becoming and difference in the work of Pia Fries, Terry Winters and Francois Rouan. These contemporary artists were chosen as some of their work may be described as having rhizomatic qualities – it may include meshes, networks, webs, strands, strips, bands, flows, currents; it may be characterized by quirky disjunction or intricate irregularity. These works could be a reflection of the multiplicity in the world surrounding us, or they might produce their own multiplicity within their own worlds. The focus is on paintings that function as “assemblages”, charged with tension and combining multiple, interfering forces. Assemblage (from French “agencement” – “a collection of things which have been gathered together or assembled”, according to Wikipedia) is a concept introduced by Deleuze and Guattari in “A Thousand Plateaus” to describe a set of connections or relationships of component parts that are not stable or fixed. They are associated with fluidity, exchangeability and multiple connectivity. Assemblages or their parts can be replaced or displaced within themselves and among other such conglomerations, never remaining static, always disassembling and reassembling. The concept of “assemblage” has become very popular in contemporary art and cultural studies as it is far more successful at reflecting the complex nature of societal, cultural and economic developments than the traditional acknowledgement of arborescent (tree-like) groups, systems and organisations. The majority of the works discussed here are characterized by a certain complexity and thickness of the picture surface, which encourages the viewer’s eye to continually shift in the painting, searching endlessly for the next movement or displacement. These paintings often work as puzzles, riddles or conundrums. We will look later at the different ways each artist achieves this effect. The three painters selected do not necessarily rely on depictive representational modes (although Fries at times appropriates some representational images, and Rouan occasionally uses recognizable body forms and motifs). Painting here is more like an arena for the release of rhizomatic currents and lateral proliferations. Each painting could be viewed as a “plateau”, according to Deleuze and Guattari’s term - a transformative space, a world of its own, characterized by its own rhythm and density. This self-vibrating space is obsessively textured, often becoming-textile. Its intense density is dispersed across a field, its intricacies are spread across a whole surface, a membrane.