06.02.09
William Drenttel | Essays

Once Out of Chaos


Once Out of Chaos: Pauline Galiana, a video by Richard Devereaux

Natural sounds and natural lighting inform this elegiac mediation on making — on art formulated and gridded from the detritus of painting. This meticulously-paced video by Richard Devereaux takes the time to capture the beauty of hundreds of individually-sewn stitches, softly wavering in the breezes of a warm afternoon.

Pauline Galiana painted Silent Cells in 2004, exploring the repetition of forms on a grid, then the repetition of the paintings as a series. She saved hundreds of paper rags used to wipe her oil brushes, and then in 2008-09 began a new series of collages, Winter of Will. Sewn gently onto organic fabric, she creates a new, breathing grid. Galiana's work is a mediation on domesticity and the recycling of creative energy. And Richard Devereaux is a patient, thoughtful filmmaker.



Posted in: Arts + Culture, Media



Comments [10]

Navel gazing as art and involving another person. "work" that is the end result of what is essentially not good "art" in the first place is now transformed into a secondary thing even more removed from "art"
Hiram Gonzales
06.03.09
09:20

like watching dried paint dry

06.03.09
05:48

I loved this. Its indefatigably nothing about nothing. A complete waist of my time. Totally useless. Thanks William. Can I have yourr autograph?
S.O'D
Sheamus
06.03.09
06:26

A life-sized Twitter "Following" field. Hmm...
David Boni
06.03.09
10:02

The kind of post that makes you think "Why?"
Reynie
06.04.09
07:27

Contrary to commentators above, I found this to be a useful and interesting video. I don't happen to be a huge fan of op art (although I love Bridget Rileys' recent work which I saw last summer in Paris) yet there is something very beautiful about the intersection of the creative process with the materials of creation.

I am reminded of the pages of ink which John Cage produced by cleaning his pen as he composed: there is nothing intentional about their composition, but to take that object and organize and present it to an audience requires the audience to re-consider the creative process to re-consider the art object itself. Here, Galiana takes the by-product of the creative process and consciously organizes it into a pleasing form. You could even say that this work is even MORE intentional and intentionally sentimental or beautiful than "Silent Cells" which she organized using an-aesthetic criteria.

What we have here is a glimpse into the craft of organization: the process of collection and collation and creating connections both aesthetic and physical, which is the essence of language and taxonomy, and thus the ground from which aesthetics evolves.

my $0.02

thomas
06.04.09
10:35

Why?

...I like the chaos
UB
06.05.09
06:50

Beautiful work.

The works made from remnants of larger works that an artists creates are always more arresting; they are present as stronger more personal sketches.
Lorenzo Morales
06.05.09
05:13

I loved the hands. Great. Its always so difficult to get the hands right. Beautiful.
peter
06.07.09
05:39

Natural sounds and natural lighting inform this elegiac mediation on making — on art formulated and gridded from the detritus of painting were excellent...
play games
12.05.09
02:10


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