Diving right into life: jocular spirits, work schedules, and (un)productivity
A text by Marianne Derrien about "La pêche 7/7"[Pep, 24/7], 2023
« Works of art are picnic spots, hostels where you only eat what you bring yourself.»» François Morellet¹
All the entreaties to participate in the contemporary hedonism that capitalizes on the quest for happiness may well provide us with the explanations we need regarding the intentions of this exhibition entitled “La pêche 7/7” [Pep, 24/7], unless, of course, they just complicate matters. Having recognized that the virtues as well as the vices of our society are anchored in values such as work, well-being, and even consumerism, for several years Elvire Bonduelle has been searching for a sense of meaning in it all, particularly a double meaning, as if she is seeking to defuse the “dictatorship of happiness”. As a gatherer of words and a collector of ambiguous forms, she blends the artistic and decorative registers. As a result, this solo show is an invitation to consider painting through a prism composed of an inventory of everyday life, sharp wit, playful tendencies, and unreserved sharing. Everything involves a story of alliance, one between the serious and the facetious. Neither fish nor fowl, this wild, elusive, iridescent, sometimes flighty exhibition never ceases to offer unexpected movements and fresh twists that pique our imaginations.
While mixing pleasure with humor is one of the prerequisites for the existence of her artwork, Elvire Bonduelle is no dilettante. On the contrary, her art is produced with a deliberate discipline to ensure the works thwart classifications with their disarming, fierce simplicity. Beneath their soft, watered-down exteriors, two new series of paintings address issues related to time and money. Drawn with a ruler for the lettering, these two pictorial series confront writing, logotype, typography, and poster art. There is a devotion to minutiae that is exercised in a joyful, mischievous manner by examining the often-absurd meanings of the hackneyed formulations chosen for one of the series: these stock slogans, notably MONEY HONEY, WIN WIN, DOG EAT DOG, offer a journey through the story of language. Everything here operates through duplication, symmetry, imbrication, or inversion. Due to the appearance created by this systematic practice, Elvire Bonduelle achieves whimsy and freedom while staying within the rules of art. In the words of François Morellet, the artist is “rigorously risible” as she plays tricks with this orderly, logical world of propriety and decorum. Because here, a system is being deregulated. Deregulating within the rules is a way to re-appropriate the consumerist discourse by exposing it as such: the reversal between words and images offers multiple narrative, poetic, or critical possibilities. Beneath their banal, smiling, and reassuring appearance, these stylized schematic graphic representations conceal something else: the violence of contemporary dictates, the control of our schedules.
With the rise of the industrialized and urbanized era that began in the 19th century, the week became the dominant rhythm of daily life. With the weekly series, Elvire Bonduelle enriches and celebrates the passage of time by embracing the routine associated with an occupation, that of painting as both a domestic and intimate practice. Everything plays out on the razor’s edge between utility and necessity, and also between pleasures, the little things in life, and the everyday gestures. Same same but different. If Elvire Bonduelle seems to paint a picture that’s always identical but always unique, this is to be taken more or less to the letter. Repetition is all about difference, and like the fruit she paints, her art comes in a variety of flavors for all to enjoy. Whether it’s work, passion, free time, or constraint, a demarcation is established between art, the labor it implies, its function, and notions of taste. Without appearing to do so, a historical and transcultural circulation of symbols is at work, one that constantly puts into play the textual and the visual, the speakable and the visible. This complicit wink towards art history facilitates the absence of hierarchy between genres. The distinctions between art and life become muddied, bringing these works literally and figuratively into the real world. Little by little, they acquire a functional potential.
If the fruit of this cyclical, contemplative exercise is an exploration of time and its illusions, Elvire Bonduelle’s “Maison Voiture Chien”, a memory-game of some 100 images compiled and archived by the artist, encourages the viewer’s active participation. As a “ready to use” object, this work teases representations of so-called happiness, as well as the lifestyles associated with it, those stemming from the modern life and its associated mirages that emerged from the Trente Glorieuses period of economic prosperity. As in the impersonal, gimmicky world of Jacques Tati’s films, this game, at first glance playful and candid, o!ers several levels of understanding. Elvire Bonduelle focuses on the visual, blurring the boundary between sense and nonsense. Collect, sort, win by finding pairs, and that’s it! A touch of playfulness enlivens everything, even if an excess of seriousness could ultimately make you laugh.
*François Morellet, «Du spectateur au spectateur ou l’art de déballer son pique-nique» , dans «Mais comment taire mes commentaires», Éditeur ENSBA, Paris, 2019, p. 55
Marianne Derrien
About the exhibition «La pêche 7/7», from Sept the 2nd to October the 28th, 2023, Galerie Double V, Marseille, France
