ART CITIES:Los Angeles – Vincent Fecteau
Vincent Fecteau’s abstract sculptures defy summary description. Out of everyday material like papier-mâché, cardboard, pictures from magazines, and paint, he fashions complex objects in which spaces simultaneously collapse and explode. Reminiscent, in many instances, of the elemental forms of early twentieth-century art, his works evoke associations ranging from utopian architecture and avant-garde stage design to masks and industrially manufactured components, yet they do not spell out their references.
By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Matthew Marks Gallery Archive
Vincent Fecteau in his solo exhibition at Matthew Marks Gallery in Los Angeles presents ten works. Five sculptures made from painted papier-mâché in a process developed by the artist over the last two decades are included in the exhibition. His chosen material is fundamental to the creative process in which his objects come into being. While lacking all productive functionality and largely unrelated to the world around us, papier-mâché is also highly malleable and can be applied and removed in layers. Evincing distinctive traces of how they were made, the sculptures always bear witness to the hand that made them. The immediacy of physical contact as the artist kneaded, modeled, and massaged the material is unmistakable in the finished objects. Their tactile physicality and the surfaces structured by monochrome fields lend them a peculiar bodily presence. The distinctive aesthetic blends baroque ornateness with a hint of futurist eroticism. As Fecteau has described it, “There are forms or curves that I can only imagine making out of papier-mâché. It’s amazingly flexible and endlessly additive and reductive.” Arranged on pedestals, the sculptures include some of the artist’s largest works to date, yet they retain the uncertain sense of scale that is a central component of his art: “I long for the form that exists free of so-called understanding and that operates in a purely abstract, maybe unconscious way. Yet this utopian desire hinges on an idea of abstraction that not only might be impossible but, in the end, might even be undesirable.” The beholders are actively involved in making sense of Vincent Fecteau’s work, which presents very different aspects depending on their vantage point. Seen from the sides, for example, the sculptures appear as fairly slender closed forms, while their front and rear views possess depth, with openings revealing multiple staggered interiors as in a diorama. Fecteau perpetually translates one formal logic into another; gifted with a subtle sense of ambivalence, he probes its potential to offer resistance to the blunt assertion of the normal. Ambiguity is thus not just a formal attribute but in fact the true subject of the works and the anchor of their social and political dimension. The five collages are installed on the wall. They combine images (clippings from architecture magazines, photographs by the artist) with materials such as cardboard and found pieces of wood or rope to create shallow reliefs. The effect is often an ambiguous sense of depth and an oscillation between abstract and domestic space. Like his sculptures, they admire the notion of the impossible.
Info: Matthew Marks Gallery, 1062 North Orange Grove, Los Angeles, duration: 14/7-29/9/18, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:30-18:00, www.matthewmarks.com
