21 May 2008

Review

BEIRUT: Dispelling medieval myths surrounding tapestry seems all too easy for Croatian artist Jasenka Tucan-Vaillant. Using vibrant colors and elemental shades to depict various landscapes, her current collection "Carnets de Voyages 1993 - 2008" exhibits a bountiful range of styles, from the abstract to the more traditional, together with several sculptures and "papiers-artistiques."

Tucan-Vaillant's work reflects a personal, emotional experience of several countries she has encountered as the wife of a diplomat. The tapestry is overlooked by the contemporary art world, she believes, because of the cliches lingering about it. If so, she sheds new light on tapestry as a contemporary art form - from the vacant rice fields of the Philippines (whether captured in dizzying hot pinks and rich greens or, by contrast, in soft monotone beige) to her apparently impressionistic scenes of Paris.

The time it takes to complete a tapestry varies from piece to piece, but the process is always a time-intensive one. "Je m'amuse," Vaillant says. "I have fun with my work. As I apply more and more thread, I can feel it literally growing from one thread into a full tapestry."

Among her many talents are quaint sculptures, often of female forms or of podgy, somewhat endearing, birds. She doesn't intend to exclude the masculine form from her works - indeed, there is the odd one or two forms present in her collection. Her repeated use of feminine forms, she explains, exemplify what the feminine means to her: beauty, maternity, gentle and soft demeanor.

Barring their size, the bronze sculptures on offer vary little in form: elegantly poised faces - the same obedient chin that is reminiscent of Degas' ballerina - and simplistic, bell-shaped dresses, often with a leaf print or some other kind of organic matter embossed on the bronze.

"I like to use natural materials," Vaillant points out. "Especially from the country I am depicting - cotton from the Philippines, pines from the Bekaa. I don't like using artificial material."

Organic matter is ubiquitous in "Carnets de Voyages." Her papiers-artistiques (mixed-media works that are formed predominantly from dried flowers, leaves and fibrous paper) follow a Japanese technique, with delicate watercolors illuminating the affixed matter. Where her tapestries don't employ a method of dangling threads to illustrate this point, they nevertheless maintain the idea of nature through the use of elemental colors, basic shapes and soft curves. Her work, on the whole, is calming.

While her travels have confirmed a sense that we are living in a universal world with the same soil (as her work suggests), she is adamant in recognizing the individual nature of each country.

"There was something particular to each country and each country had a positive effect on me. I would often leave a country and ask myself how I felt." Then the process of weaving would begin with a small drawing which she would then "translate" into tapestry, staying true to the colors and strokes employed.

Vaillant's work is most impressive in this regard: her status as "peintre-licier" is a rare one. There is something captivating in seeing this "translation" into wool - the fusion of color, in what appears to be whirls of impressionist strokes, that renders a sunset, such as "Soleil de Crete" (2003) for example, or fields of lavender as captured in "Champs de Lavande" (2001). Vaillant evokes scenes with rich warmth - an autumnal hillside in Poland for instance - which complements her romantic outlook that is intent on capturing "light" and "joy."

As for Lebanon, she says, her work is not political. The pieces created here very recently convey a message that this country needs and deserves peace. Sculptures entitled "Hymne au Liban" (A Hymn for Lebanon) use the same natural motifs. "Inseparables" are more abstract - small pairs and trios of sculptures whose components complement and lean toward one another. In a Lebanese context, the effect is touching.

Vaillant's credentials already define her as an artist, sculptor and tapestry-maker of resounding prowess. Having held countless exhibitions all over the world, her recent arrival in Lebanon has consolidated her status, with her tapestries making an appearance at the prestigious Sursock Autumn Salon this year. The presence of her work is legitimate: in her hands, tapestry-painting is a hybrid art form that, like simple sculptures and Japanese art forms, should invite ample curiosity.

"Carnets de Voyage 1993 - 2008," by Jasenka Tucan-Vaillant, is on show at Planet Discovery, Downtown Beirut, until June 15. Call +961 1 980 650 for more information.

Copyright The Daily Star 2008.