Tesserae/Traces
Christine Koch & Heather Reeves
April 1 - May 9, 2001
Christine Koch
Tesserae
The Tesserae series is a suite of polychrome
linocut print collages. Each is a
one-of-a-kind composite of square linocut
"tiles" which have been cropped from larger
linocut prints.
The iconography in the Tesserae: Still Live
Narrative series ranges from the familiar to
the more enigmatic/esoteric, and derives
from a mosaic of sources: from my own
lares et penates (household gods), from art
history (with quotations ranging from
Classical statuary to paintings by Kandinsky
and Hockney), and from classical
archetypal symbolism. There are certain
leitmotifs which reflect my own interests and
obsessions. And there are many little
dialogues between images within the works.
Those tesserae with text refer, reflexively, to
the original exhibition of the source linocut
prints.
I have worked with serial images and
multiples for years, and enjoy the
resonances-the iconographic and chromatic
harmonics, as it were-working in this
format. The arrangement of the tesserae,
while perhaps giving the impression of
randomness, is carefully considered.
I intend that these pieces be apprehended
and enjoyed on at least two levels: on the
one hand, the images, being figurative and
(mostly) recognisable, are easily "readable";
on the other, the compositions can be
appreciated on a more immediate, sensuous
level, as formal arrangements of visually-rich
colour.
The original formal inspiration for the
Tesserae series was Classical mosaic, but
the more I work with computers, the more
intriqued I become with the dissolution of
images on screen into abstract blocks of
tone and colour, and I see an analogy and
influence in the Tesserae collages.
Christine Koch March, 2001
Heather Reeves
Traces
When we leave a place which has formed us, we have to learn to
see with new eyes a foreign landscape and attempt to make it our
own. Eventually, two countries contribute to an internal landscape
of our own making that we project onto a psychological screen, an
inner site with a double role. It blocks out the unacceptable, that
which we cannot face, the Real. As well, it provides an alternative
world created with symbols which allow us to be comfortable
within the Void. Thus we are able to incorporate images and
memories that shift in and out of focus, depending upon what we
need and want at any particular time. It is not a permanent
solution, however, but one with fissure and tears that we must
constantly repair for continued equilibrium.
Heather Reeves, March 2001
