A shift of emphasis is thus established from the singular to the plural and logically so, in that one is dealing with multiplicity, with the 'editioning' of objects, with the 'production' of wallpaper or fabric.
If my mainstream work is rooted in matters of identity... in the quest of the self (and its ideal) and therefore in a problematic, then within the poetics of design it is as though there is also a shift away from the self towards the selfless. (that which is free of any problematic) the nameless, the anonym, and perhaps the platonic….And on this path leading away from the unique there also lies a shift... from the intimate and towards the anonymous
One activity will naturally inform the other but they remain in tangent and opposite... It is this contrast which stimulates me... and within which, rather than extend my fine art aesthetic, I can complement it with design. I enjoy the dialectic.
A fire extinguisher, a coffee pot, an armchair or a jug are each inbued with instant meaning... They tell us what they are, and what they do ... in a way that the mute, enigmatic painting does not. Design gives us answers, Fine Art poses questions. We take meaning from Design... and give meaning to Fine Art. From a letter of 1987 to H. Besacier, Revised 1989.
The current exhibition includes pieces from a portfolio of seamstress exercises by Marie Tailhardt, the mother of the artist, which were given to her son and are here shown alongside works which are similarly engaged in the language of textiles. Marie Tailhardt worked at the house of Paquin in Paris and these exercises formed part of her training.
Between the language of the mother in the service of craft and the commissioned fabric designs by Chaimowicz (here repurposed into new relations) a communion occurs.
These new relations are materially embodied in the conditions of production, a production which despite its service to industry and commerce, nevertheless bares the traces of a more profound intimacy, one which survives those conditions, and endures.
