Marie Rioux
Land scape
CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
I like artworks to be enigmatic . For me , representation and abstraction are closely tied up with one another : nature and mind . They are the fundamental elements of the human being . There was a time in my life when my work was openly abstract . Today I never decide in advance whether I will make a figurative or an abstract work . That depends on the moment . Take for example “ La Tête dans les Nuages ” (“ Head in the Clouds ”). At first there were no figures . What interested me , against the Zen background of the land , close to abstraction , was to create a vibration in the water with the contrasting colour of fluorescent orange acrylic next to the greengrey oil paint . This fluorescent orange is a symbol of the artificiality present in our landscapes , so heavily occupied by people . In truth , I think I was the only one excited by this vibration . A few months later , arriving one day at my studio , I looked at my painting and found it empty . Spontaneously and precipitously , I took a tube of black paint and with a wide brush I painted three giants directly onto the work . In doing so , I relegated the land to the background in order to privilege , for the first time , human representation . a certain sense representative of the relationship between emotion and memory . How would you define the relationship between abstraction and representation in your practice ? In particular , how does representation and a tendency towards abstraction find their balance in your work ?
The tones that condense your visual vocabulary and we have really appreciated the ethereal quality of your pieces . When we look at Troisiénne Rencontre Avant la Nuit we are struck by the atmosphere suggested by the darkness that saturates the canvass . Is this a reflection of you ? Can you describe to me how this darkness that appears in your work connects to you personally ? In particular , how do you view the concepts of the real and the imagined playing out within your works ?