For this current body of work, the inspiration has stemmed from scene which took place in the workshop of Agnès Martin, the American abstract expressionist painter. One day, her New York gallerist visits her in Mexico, accompanied by his little girl. Having arrived in the workshop, the latter is marvelled at a rose placed in a vase. The artist asks her if she finds it beautiful. The young girl answers: “Yes! Very beautiful!”. Agnes Martin removes the flower from the vase, places it behind her back and reiterates her question. The girl, again replies: “Yes! Very beautiful”. The artist, then says to her: “You see, beauty is not on the outside, but on the inside!”. This statement echoes my own personal experience, that is, the object itself is not endowed with values nor does it belong to any categories. It’s the Observer who dresses the object according to his inner mood. In this story, the flower only awakens that which is already present.
In this same vein, Floral Mood, my actual work using discarded wrappings, those humble materials, is an attempt to blur out the boundaries of categories which fragment the perception of the visual field and allow this inner beauty to emerge, devoid of all labels. The choreography of the materials unfolds of its own: the organic fibres, by their virile texture, support the vulnerability of the synthetic materials, malleable and non-degradable. Also, the sisal and coco string, by their natural and neutral coloration, bring out the already saturated colours of the synthetic fibres. Then comes the white plastic bubble paper, its translucent pearly aspect confers the work its luminosity in an otherwise opaque field. In this space emptied out of all projections, they cheerfully cross the threshold of materials to be recycled and become resources to compose with and celebrate. Thus, as I work with them I don’t feel as though I’m weaving nor telling a story, but rather, sculpting by following the movement intimated by the materials themselves and allow the flowering of the beauty inherent in the way I see them and that, I should wish, the viewers will see them.
Andie Grande
