Read 'Press
release' - Fanchon
Frohlich retrospective - Please,
click here to read printable version.
Read "Neural
Supernovae" by Jeremy
Reed (about Fanchon Frohlich):
C O M M E N T A R Y: P E R F O R M E R S
"The Dialectic of the Unconscious and the Conscious: Fanchon Frohlich.
"
"Painters working together
on the same surface with a musician, Lawrence Ball, who improvises
on our movements and guides them, acting together
in a self-generated unity.
Let us end our fear of the unconscious creativity of others and replace
it by a dialogue between different people. Let us bring to an end
the arbitrary in art in favour of the rigorous and mysterious structure
of the unconscious. There exists a whole unconscious to be explored.
Take an example: the picture space is not one homogeneous whole but
has tendencies to rise and fall, interacting with whatever is placed
within it ‚ a floating and a descent in opposite directions:
push and pull.
Before beginning to paint the artists choose three colours according
to our deep mood or what Kandinsky called 'the Spiritual in Art' or
even arbitrarily.
If we could see colours in the profound way we can hear music, there
might be a question of actually perceiving counterpoint, the intertwining
of lines of colours leading to chords. Ah, if we only could!
But we can actually do so by selecting those colours that we actually
use not by using opaque colours. These opaque colours obliterate
each other crossing out and annihilating the underlying traces
whereas we want to preserve those remnants. Using only transparent
colours, the traces show through so rich interferences can arise.
You might see a coloured gesture intersecting with another, creating
a
space in which a new colour unnamed, mysterious arises
in this particular coming together. The unexpected! 1000 types
of black. You can hear the colour.
When improvising according to our motions, Lawrence guides us in
our deep moods, sometimes enhancing, sometimes diminishing them
and guides
us in stalking the right time to intervene in the composition.
This creates a sense of self-generation across media between music
and
painting. It is concrete a kind of collective osmosis.
Communal work very very quickly eliminates the personal and allows
it to merge with the collective. In practice one should be aware
of what the others have done as in a chess game perceiving the
whole field where the desire to be competitive is excluded.
It no longer consists of simply asking who has done what, but concentrating
instead on what has been committed to the space and pulling unity
out of that.
Why do we hold ourselves upright over the surface rather than painting
in the more conventional way, upright? This seemingly trivial question
provides deep insight into the resonance required. The arm, instead
of being supported is stretched out in order to allow a fluid movement
from the whole body. These gestures can be very fast or very slow but
there are certain provisos: the resonance between what has already
gone before and what is intended to follow must be maintained.
Such 'resonance' is essential, linking forms of gesture to each other,
providing an underlying tentative ever-changing framework which can
develop in infinite ways and even linking music with painting.
At first different types of coherence appear and can be metamorphosed
during the course of the work. As it approaches completion, an
analysis, a reconsideration, a collective decision may be arrived at,
or there
might be too many possibilities arising each demanding its own
continuation. Then discussions arise "maybe it should be done
this way", or else "there would be more unity if
it went that way". We might even paint in the air to suggest
the tentative outcome. Or one might say 'then do it' and the free
dialogue
returns. Thus collective decision might determine which possibility
is chosen. It is, of course, possible that the sought-for unity
will appear in an unexpected way, giving a harmonious feeling,
but it
also possible that it will not, leaving it free to another attempt.
Collective creation has to do with spontaneity that comes from the
unconscious and this may be succeeded by a critical attitude. This
is the dialogue between the conscious and the unconscious.
Choosing the name: 'Collective Phenomena' was borrowed from my own
paper, Collective Phenomena, written from a scientific viewpoint.
The original Collective Phenomena was concerned with possible and
actual
developments in a scientific context. Because these movements seemed
to have a wider source, it was extended to include "Collective
Phenomena" (not only a wider concept of art but even relations
between people as collective phenomena).
What is gained and what lost by entering into the 'Collective Phenomena'
experience? Does entering into the collective unconscious of another
person give a wider access? Yes, but this venturing is not a permanent
transformation. It is rather a temporary coming together ‚ a
merging, an illumination and then a letting go. It is an event
that can be repeated by different people at different times‚ an
event of mutual self-generation. We invite you in."
© Fanchon Frohlich, Liverpool 2000 (Extract
from: http://www.planettree.org/2000/ccolphen.html)
Read
more about Fanchon Fröhlich and
see more examples of her work and writings on the following websites:
http://www.fanchonfrohlich.com
http://www.stanleywilliamhayter.com
http://www.planettree.org/2000/ccolphen.html
See Fanchon
Frohlich photo album with some
selections from the opening of her retrospective show, 2008. Exhibition:
9 February - 12 April 2008. See details above or follow link
to exhibitions: http://www.gallery4allarts.com/exhibitions.htm
Seee details related to
Fanchon's exhibition on Beryl Bainbridge, entitled: "A friendship".
Exhibition curated by Nicole Bartos, 2010.
Above image is
depicting a moment in the midst of readings from Beryl Bainbridge's
novels by Liverpool poet/ writer, Dave Ward.
All images copyrighted
to N. Bartos/ Gallery4allarts.
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