Exhibition view | photo: Bruno Contin
23.06.2022 | Do Sandclocks Dream of the Wind?
“Os Grãos do Relógio Sonham com o Vento”?
Duo Exhibition by Delia Hamer (DE/ES) & Lauren Roche (US)
(scroll down for portuguese)
The works of painters Delia Hamer and Lauren dela Roche are placed here in a dialogue, converging in a common exploration of themes that have timeless pertinence. Despite their obvious singularity, the works communicate and echo one another, revealing semiotic and conceptual affinities.
On both sides, the artist’s personal psychological experiences infuse the creative process, giving birth to rich imaginary landscapes that reflect their inner psyches. The images mirror not only the painters particular memories and vicissitudes, but also the viewer’s universal anxieties: ‘after I make a painting, I feel supported by it. I hope that someone else would feel understood in some way too’ says dela Roche.
As the palpable presence of the artists unique interiority invites the public to self-interrogation, personal mythologies and Greek mythology overlap in a movement between the particular and the universal.
Seemingly impassive, powerful female nudes dominate vibrant oneiric sceneries of saturated colours. They share their mystical and intimate environments with wild animals and felines, symbols of inner demons. Yet the beasts appear tame or in the process of being befriended by the feminine figures; some have traded snarls for docile strength; nemeses transfigured into allies.
Solace and resilience are suggested, but the ambiguity and perilousness of the relationship with the unpredictable entities remains patent. That tension between angst and relief conjures the pattern of cyclicality prolifically found in Greek mythology - both Hamer’s and dela Roche’s inexhaustible source of inspiration. Hamer’s series is imbued with the Greek myth of the seasons and, in her own words, of ‘Persephone condemned to perpetually venture from darkness to light, from the abyss to the surface, from the hidden to the known, utterly resigned to the dictatorship of duality and reckoning with the fear of the journey.’
Like Persephone, and despite the ineluctability of psychological cycles, are those female characters dreaming of escaping the duality inherent to the human condition? Do grains of time trapped within glass chambers of the sand-clock yearn for a breeze to alter their course as they stream down again, once more forming the same predictable pyramid of sand? Do sand-clocks dream of the wind? And if they do, should they? Or, as Albert Camus asserted, is it so that ‘One must imagine Sisyphus happy’?
Curatorial Text: Malvina Boschet
Do Sandclocks Dream of the Wind?
Exhibition View | photo: Bruno Contin
Delia Hamer: “Where Poppies Grew”, 2022
Exhibition View | photo: Bruno Contin
(texto em português)
“Os Grãos do Relógio Sonham com o Vento”?
Nesta exposição, as obras das pintoras Delia Hamer e Lauren dela Roche são colocadas em diálogo, convergindo em uma exploração comum de temas que têm pertinência atemporal. Apesar de sua óbvia singularidade, as obras se comunicam e ecoam, revelando afinidades semióticas e conceituais.
Em ambos os lados, as experiências psicológicas pessoais das artistas infundem o processo criativo, dando origem a ricas paisagens imaginárias que refletem suas psiques interiores. As imagens espelham não só as recordações e vicissitudes particulares das pintoras, mas também as ansiedades universais do espectador: ‘depois de fazer uma pintura, sinto-me apoiada por ela. Espero que também outra pessoa se sinta compreendida de alguma forma’, diz dela Roche.
Enquanto a presença palpável da interioridade única das artistas convida o público à auto-indagação, mitologias pessoais e mitologia grega se sobrepõem em um movimento entre o particular e o universal.
Aparentemente impassíveis, poderosas mulheres nuas dominam cenários oníricos vibrantes de cores saturadas. Elas compartilham seus ambientes místicos e íntimos com animais selvagens e felinos, símbolos de demônios interiores. No entanto, as bestas parecem mansos ou no processo de se tornar amigo das figuras femininas; alguns trocaram rosnados por força dócil; némesis transfiguradas em aliados.
Consolo e resiliência são sugeridos, mas a ambiguidade e perigosidade da relação com as entidades imprevisíveis permanece patente. Essa tensão entre angústia e alívio conjura o padrão de ciclicidade prolificamente encontrado na mitologia grega - a fonte inesgotável de inspiração para ambas artistas.
A série de Hamer está imbuída do mito grego das estações e, em suas próprias palavras, de ‘Perséfone condenada a se aventurar perpetuamente da escuridão para a luz, do abismo para a superfície, do oculto para o conhecido, resignada totalmente à ditadura da dualidade e a contar com o medo da viagem.’
Como Perséfone, e apesar da inelucabilidade dos ciclos psicológicos, essas personagens femininas estão sonhando em escapar da dualidade inerente à condição humana? Os grãos do tempo, presos dentro das câmaras de vidro do relógio, anelam por uma brisa que altere o seu curso enquanto estão
a fluir para baixo novamente, mais uma vez formando a mesma pirâmide previsível de areia? Os grãos do relógio sonham com o vento? E se o fizerem, deveriam fazê-lo? Ou, como afirmou Albert Camus, será que ‘Devemos imaginar Sísifo feliz’?
Texto Curatorial: Malvina Boschet
Exhibition view: Delia Hamer & Lauren Roche
by Delia Hamer artwork: “Beneath the Surface”
Lauren Roche - Delia Hamer - Lauren Roche
Exhibition View: Delia Hamer & Lauren Roche
Exhibition View | photo: Bruno Contin
About the Artists:
Delia Hamer
German born (Köln, 1992) but raised in the countryside of southern Spain. After her painting studies in Milan (Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera) and her Masters in London (UAL) she decided to move back south and set up her studio in Lisbon (2018). There she had her first solo show “The tree of knowledge was a Palmtree” at Boa gallery (2020) the same year she was one of the winners of the Delphian Gallery’s (London) open call. Her solo show “Nothing new under the Sun” opened July 2021 with Hang Tough gallery in Dublin. By now many of her paintings are part of private collections across the world.
Delia Hamer in her studio in Lisbon (photo: Austeja Sciavinskaite)
Lauren Roche
Born in Santa Rosa, Califórnia in 1983 - Lauren dela Roche is a self-taught artist that currently lives and works in a cabin in rural Minnesota, MN. An avid reader, Roche cites the magical realist novels of Murakami and Kathy Acker’s punk poetry as influential to her practice. Roche has shown at the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, the Delphian Gallery in London, Sean Horton in New York, Bockley Gallery in Minneapolis, the Material Fair (2020), Mexico City among other venues. She was a recipient of the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptors Grant (2018) and today her works are in the collections of the North Dakota Museum of Art and the Minneapolis Institute of Art along with numerous private collections. Lauren was awarded the Joan Mitchell Foundation’s Painters and Sculptors Grant (2018) and was a recipient of the 2012-2013 Jerome Foundation Visual Arts Fellowship.
detail from Lauren Roche artwork
We are located in the neighborhood of Santos by the MNAA Lisboa.