Insight: Claire Tabouret’s ‘I am spacious, singing flesh’
This year’s acclaimed Venice Biennale presents a surrealist vision, a celebration of the ethereal and bizarre – perfect for the city that floats, as if by magic.
Amongst the presentations dotted around the lagoon, an exhibition that stands out is French artist Claire Tabouret’s ‘I am spacious, singing flesh’. Nestled in quiet Dorsoduro, yet minutes from masterpieces of the Renaissance in the Accademia, Claire’s works are placed in a Palazzo on the water’s edge.
The close proximity to water suits the sculptures that greet you at the door. Claire’s bronze figures, dressed in nostalgic striped swimsuits, sit in groups in the Palazzo’s courtyard, haunting and guarding it.
Image taken by CURA Art
Curated by Kathryn Weir, the exhibition surveys the contemporary artists’ work over the last fix-six years, brought together in a show that talks of transformation, ritual, and the transcendental quality of art.
Claire’s work in this context takes on new meaning; her paintings hang like contemporary altarpieces shrouded in sacred symbology. The sacred nature of the show is emphasised by carved devotional figures, taken from archaeological collections in Italy, placed amongst the large canvases. In dialogue with the characters of Claire’s narratives, they create a sense of continuity through their shared appreciation of the divine.
Claire’s work forms part of a return to - or renaissance of - figuration, amongst an era of artists seeking to find greater understanding, and their own spirituality through the act of painting. In an age of unknowns, the ability to escape into a familiar and figurative realm through the window of a canvas is appealing.
The artist utilises repeated figures, each with a distinct personality, much like those in the historical and religious paintings hanging in the city’s churches and civic buildings. An intimate connection confronts you in ‘Self Portrait as a Vampire’, as the artist’s own intense, characterful face stares out at you; a seriousness captured with soft yet expressive brushstrokes.
In all, the show represents the emotive reach and mystical lands one can explore through the realm of a canvas, and then you step back out into the most beguiling of them all; the island of Venice.