exhibition statement: The Rosy Crucifixion
AMARIE BERGMAN
I am trying to get at the inner pattern of events.[1] ...in the mind, worlds unclassified, undenominated, unassimilated, form, break, unite, dissolve and harmonize ceaselessly.[2]
The Rosy Crucifixion is a distillation of the little deaths, the little resurrections and the spaces between them which occur in moments of metaphoric coupling where non-objective concreteness dovetails with the invisible poetics of existence.
In homage to Henry Miller’s autobiographical novel, The Rosy Crucifixion, written just before Miller left New York City to live in Paris, the work for this exhibition references the book’s provocative voluptuosity and metaphysical underpinning. By dissolving some of the language of the three-volumes that make up the novel - Sexus, Plexus and Nexus - and filtering the essence, the work inherently is minimal.
Sexus - The Little Deaths
A piece of paper carries the memory of its history, including what has touched its surface. If the paper is compressed, its appearance changes and its dimensions become voluminous. In physics, condensed matter reveals physical properties that appear when a number of atoms “interact and adhere to each other or are otherwise highly concentrated in a system.”[3] For this floor installation, spheres made of hand-compacted rose-pink tissue paper compose the grid of a Greek cross. Although individualistic convolutions of each sphere are apparent, the numerous multiples within the strict parameters form a unity.
Plexus - F
The letter F is rife with connotations, mainly as an abbreviated slang for fornication, and an exclamatory oath. However, the highly reductive singular painting epitomizes the moment of poise between connective intersections of a vertical line with two horizontals.
Nexus - One Little Resurrection
Fragrance is a non-objective form of once-physical matter: its origin is not evident, yet scent can be a multi-dimensional presence. The small sculpture, a semi-hemispherical, rose-red velvet dot, localizes Mystra, a perfume redolent with labdanum, frankincense and mastic, and subtly permeates the gallery’s air space.
[1] Henry Miller, The World of Sex, quoted by Erica Jong, The Devil at Large [New York: Random House, 1993] 235.
[2] Henry Miller, Sexus (Book One of the ‘Rosy Crucifixion’ trilogy) [London: Harper Perennial, 2006] 121.
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condensed_matter_physics
Images:
https://www.amariebergman.com/gallery/the-rosy-crucifixion
ParisCONCRET, Paris
12 May 2012 – 9 June 2012
http://www.parisconcret.org/2012/05/rosy-crucifixion.html
(The gallery, directed by Richard van der Aa, closed in 2014.)
.