Frans Masareel Centrum Belgium
November 2009
During an artist residency at the Frans Masareel Centrum in Belgium the artist book Alice Awakening emerged. Alices's "pawn" companions became her mentors on a playing field of human values forgotten.
28 mai au 26 juin 2011
vernissage
jeudi le 2 juin à 17h
For Painter/Print artist Louise Bloom, the theme “Livre ouvert” has more than one meaning. Her visual narrative is a unique, open-ended story, being continued without conclusion.
My work, print and paint, metaphor and narrative, is a unique, open-ended story being continued without conclusion. Central to the story are the consequences of human greed and the consumer culture. Reading and meaning of word and image are a preoccupation. Text is texture as well as talk.
The icon Alice is at the center of various series of etchings/engravings that began in the year 2000 with the production of the artist book, L’AUTRE HEURE.
As a continued reinvention of Alice and friends from the original Lewis Carroll allegories, the series of etchings, ALICE’S GARDEN, is a dark slightly humorous metaphor for our age of productivity. Scrolls, like cartoons suspended in space and oversized book pages maintain a light playful form for a somber subject.
ALICE AWAKENING, a series of litho and collage, represents the descent in the rabbit hole, an awakening into a dream. Lithography here allows pure illustration made complex and sumptuous by the collage elements. Repetition and colour substitution unique to printmaking support the concept of life as the mirror.
ALICE AWAKENING, artist book production of 2010, combines original lithographic drawing with etchings, picture and text of another era. This work is dedicated to a Buddhist poem about the attainment of transcendant joy. Alice in “”Through the Looking Glass” discovers this potential.
Crowning this exhibition is a new collection of surprising large format oil-on-canvas paintings inspired again by Alice’s journey. These works further elucidate my views on our cultural mishaps, inferring possibilities for transformation.
C Louise Bloom 2010