March 22 - May 15, 2002
BRIGITTE NAHON
OPERA
galerie jerome de noirmont

exhibition release

From March 22 to May 15, Brigitte Nahon exhibited her latest works (2001/2002), a legacy of her permanent search for breaking points, forever reaching out beyond perception limits, as in a opera, a place of limitations where voice and life are at their peak.

Equilibrium and fragility remain guiding principles for Brigitte Nahon. Today they govern her search for new aesthetism, all color and transparency. Her sculpted works, freely and smoothly shaped, come alive in amazing and poetic showcases reminiscing of dance and music...

Through Acte taking the shape of plexiglas cubes inside of which flowers, veils or plastic pieces are floating on spread threads, Brigitte Nahon introduces us to several "operas", made of 2 to 5 "acts" or living tableaux bound by the same theme. Those Acte shine out with the intensity of colors and the life bursting out from them and draw the spectator inside the work both intimately, like an accomplice of the author, and more directly as the true recipient without whom the work would not exist.

Toward six Danse sculptures, Brigitte Nahon explores the invisibility of artwork, and invites the spectator in a communion with her, unveiling the outlines of her works and multiplying the vision frames of her living sculptures. Light and hungering for freedom, these Danse come into their own by nourishing themselves of the life around, delivering a smooth and poetic movement that seems eternal. With a play of veils Brigitte Nahon creates and intensifies - as with the Acte pieces - an intimate kinship with the spectator of the Danse.

"My work on equilibrium, on the concept of bounds, balanced energies and sharing is without a doubt connected to the exchange, the sharing and giving of the artist to the audience."

The idea of a communion, a dialogue with the collector who watches and acquires her works, is among the main components in Brigitte Nahon´s new work. This idea takes its full meaning in the colored series of the Exchange works in which the artist wishes to seal an eternal pact with his art collector. Eventually the work will be reminiscent of photography and drawing through colored shades projected on the wall and resonates as a general exchange between visual arts, drawing, painting and sculpture.

The perpetual legacy, the unending search that colors Brigitte Nahon´s work is personified with the sculpture Tenor of an edition of 3 and one artist´s proof which can fit in or outside. 2,10 meters high sculpture in polished stainless steel and polycarbonate, shaped in a "8", a form symbolizing infinity, bent to the confines of equilibrium, Tenor suggests the absolute in art and works by artists unbound by limitations. Tenor provides a play on reflections and inversions through which the work feeds upon its surroundings and offers a different vision of what is invisible. It calls to mind what Brian Van Velde said about his own painting: " helps one to see. It creates life, life´s complexity, something that cannot be seen. It makes visible what one doesn´t know how to see."

Next to those sculptures, Brigitte Nahon, enthralled by the wonder of butterflies flights during her recent travels in South America, has created a breathtakingly light and delicate series of drawings in watercolors and ink. Watercolors of Tenor will also be exhibited which are much more than mere pre-work sketches for the sculpture as Brigitte Nahon´s drawings capture grace and sensibility with such skill.

As in the best operas, grace and subtlety, a deep feeling of freedom, sharing, exchange and dialogue are the pulse of this exhibition, which was thought out as an hymn to life. Like a breath of fresh air, OPERA will give you the thrilling feeling of being lighter, freed from the surrounding gravity. It is a unique and purifying experience.