To coincide with the Miniartextil exhibition in Montrouge (until 23rd March 2014), Galerie Talmart in Paris has organised an exhibition dedicated to artist Mai Tabakian.
The event is entitled "Contre Nature" (Against Nature) and features three series of pieces - "Trophées", "Aux âmes etc." and "Slices" - that mainly focus on the vanity of the human condition and the transience of life.
The main theme is interpreted as an endless search for an unattainable perfection, a desire to tame nature, modify or mutilate it, but also as a quest for a soul mate seen as the missing half to overcome loneliness.
The pieces from the "Slices" series are particularly interesting as they represent imaginary fruits that may have undergone genetic changes or chemical manipulations. Their colours are extremely vibrant, and their consistency is almost monstrous. These exotic, alien-like formations are indeed made with brightly coloured vinyl fabrics employed by the artist to create rich and smoothly intricate patterns, conceived by Tabakian as anxiety and curiosity-evoking mandalas.
The materials Tabakian employs to create modern embossed tapestries on pieces of extruded polystyrene, become the key to understand her artworks, on a chromatic and textural level. Her vinyl-based fabrics mark indeed the geometric and quilted contours of her artworks, forming tactile maps and a visual geography of forms.
Tabakian is inspired in her works by her maternal grandmother's crafts, but also by her own Vietnamese origins and by the local colourful fabrics and shimmering silks.
Marie Deparis-Yafil, the curator of the exhibition, defines Tabakian's works as "hybrid objects": while their colours may evoke paintings, the materials they are made of, their volumes and structures point towards sculptures or architectural formations.
Other artists before Tabakian obviously employed fabrics and textiles in their works, among the others also Louise Bourgeois or Annette Messager. Yet, while the latter used fabrics as means for an introspective reflection to tell women's stories and evoke memories, Tabakian opts to use them as abstract compositions of shapes and receptacles with an ambiguous function.
These organic forms in bright or pastel nuances and a soft consistency look indeed like protective cocoons, while also representing a disturbingly altered reality, ultimately embodying a form of struggle against everyday pains and cruelty.
"Contre Nature", Galerie Talmart, 22, rue du Cloitre Saint Merri, 75004 Paris, until 15th March 2014.
Image credits for this post
Slices, 2012; Mixed media; Textiles on polystyrene © May Tabakian
Trophées, 2013; Mixed media; Textiles on polystyrene ,14 diptychs © May Tabakian
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