Loïc Bonnefont's painted metaphors reach paradise regardless of and far from the decaying backwater that is the world where we live more dangerously every day, on the very edge of the cliffs that are precursors of total destruction. Read the Article to deepdive in Bonnefont’s artworks.
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In this painting, the theme of openings, revealing life cells in the cosmic void, is approached uniquely. The underlying concept suggests that everything, beyond initial perceptions, is interconnected. The bonds that unite all things are represented by the interweaving energies emanating from the trees of life. Humanity, enclosed within these trees, perhaps initiated or symbolizing the animistic forces of nature, unlocks and absorbs the energy of universal forces that constitute it, at the threshold of its space.
Harmony becomes possible as we, once again, find ourselves as these complex entities that humanity has continuously explored since its dawn, from Vedic India to modern philosophy. The emotion that accompanied this painting throughout is the idea that humans, at last, perceive themselves not as separate entities, whether in their natural environment or in their own society.
The intention, evident in this painting and others in the series, is to evoke the emotion felt when faced with humanity's difficulty in connecting with others. It explores unfulfilled desires, illusions, and self-suggestions arising from inhibitions and conditioning. It portrays a man whose uncontrolled desire gives him the illusion of embracing a woman, who, in her own desire, believes she is carried by the man but remains suspended in emptiness.
The mental separation is symbolized by a screen, a transparent veil of Japanese paper marouflaged onto the already painted part of the canvas, representing the man in his context visible behind the veil. Placed in the vastness of the cosmos, the painting amplifies the overwhelming and insignificant nature of these human emotions in the face of the forces of the universe.
In "Oaristys 1," desire emerges again, an energy that, beyond peril, reason, or loss, may attempt the ultimate fusion of bodies. In the apparent vertigo of a non-future, the reproductive impulse can remain for a while the unstoppable engine of life, until fatal resignation in the face of the irreversible.
The transformations and metaphors highlight the interconnectedness of all things, poetically interpreting the real, depicting our reality emerging from an abstract chaos that might be the splendor of the universe. This chromatic and graphic language, filled with pictorial indictments, humor, and the unusual, is how Loïc Bonnefont expresses, shares, and loves.
Here, the artist unleashes a mixed technique combining ink, charcoal powder, gum arabic, and oil, creating a mineral, vegetal, and perhaps psychic exuberance enveloping a couple seemingly bound by everything. Upon closer inspection, a geometrization of space through color simulates a specific area for each character. They can be seen as ordinary neighbors who, beyond physical, mental, and societal boundaries, access each other, contemplating the genesis from which they emerge, transcending the very conditions that define them. There is no longer gender, hierarchy, or confinement—only two beings free to appreciate and love each other.
Cover image: Loïc Bonnefont. Les linéaments du vivant, 2019. Courtesy of Galeria Auréa
Written by Kooness
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