Artist: Clémence de La Tour du Pin
Exhibition title: Windings
Venue: Femtensesse, Oslo, Norway
Date: May 8 – June 5, 2021
Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Femtensesse, Oslo
Windings displays an array of welded armatures carrying layered aggregations of diverse fragments. Nets, feathers, sequence, webbing, clothes and glitter are just some of the paraphernalia immobilized by the fabric assemblages. The wall-mounted metal structures remind of 1920’s stained glass windows. In the lone floor object, the decorative trim from a lampshade is presented on a found plexiglass case. Torn from its origins, this element cedes its past by becoming a formal representation of the exhibition’s title.
The technique of winding the fabric around the metal speaks to both protection and degradation. This contradiction is paralleled by the ambiguous nature of hoarded interiors, where a plenitude of items are arranged together in a domestic environment. Antique relics and lowly materials clash together, externalizing the inner psychic confrontation. With muted palettes, desaturated tones, and a dirt-ridden appearance the materials enforce a patina of oldness. Yet, by looking closer, the synthetic fabrics yield shiny textures and generic patterns.
Through its raw power and anachronistic reflection, Windings gives pause to the premature assertion of value. Outside of the exhibition space hangs a set of posters depicting enlarged screen captures from a music video. These ghostly images are taken from a female disco trio in the late 1970’s. Here time winds back on itself like a strange maelstrom. Not linear, but spiral.
— Lilith Sachs
Clémence de La Tour du Pin, Windings, 2021, exhibition view, Femtensesse, Oslo
Clémence de La Tour du Pin, Windings, 2021, exhibition view, Femtensesse, Oslo
Clémence de La Tour du Pin, Windings, 2021, exhibition view, Femtensesse, Oslo
Clémence de La Tour du Pin, Windings, 2021, exhibition view, Femtensesse, Oslo
Clémence de La Tour du Pin, Unnamed (window), 2021. Pigment, synthetic and cotton fabric, acrylic, bamboo, feather, thread, hair, photograph, tinsel, netting, tape, latex, antique item on steel, 58 x 47 x 5 cm
Clémence de La Tour du Pin, Hoarded clutter, 2021. Pigment, synthetic and cotton fabric, acrylic, bamboo, feather, thread, altar server belt, antique item on steel, 58 x 47 x 5 cm
Clémence de La Tour du Pin, The alien call. 2021. Steel, paper, cardboard, enamel paint, gouache, acrylic on canvas, 58 x 38 x 5 cm
Clémence de La Tour du Pin, Windings, 2021, exhibition view, Femtensesse, Oslo
Clémence de La Tour du Pin, Belle Epoque, 2021. Lampshade hood, chain, thread, bells on plexiglass, 102 x 32 x 40 cm
Clémence de La Tour du Pin, Belle Epoque, 2021. Lampshade hood, chain, thread, bells on plexiglass, 102 x 32 x 40 cm
Clémence de La Tour du Pin, Windings, 2021. Pigment, dry pastel, cloth, synthetic fabric, felt, thread, glitter, netting, pearl, antique item on steel, 56 x 37 x 10 cm
Clémence de La Tour du Pin, Windings, 2021. Pigment, dry pastel, cloth, synthetic fabric, felt, thread, glitter, netting, pearl, antique item on steel, 56 x 37 x 10 cm