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PAULA STOEKE
FOTO
15-20 ottobre
Montecarlo c/o Maretti Arte Monaco
Myth & Memory The Veiled Nudes
Artist's Statement
This body of work is culled from
the past two years of my photographs of nudes, all taken
with a purposeful overlay of visual and psychological
veils. The figures appear lush, sensual, and appealing
to the touch - yet the veil - either literal or metaphorically
produced with diffused film choices and in-camera multiple
exposures - does not permit the viewer to get close.
In life we all have hiding places; emotional guards,
ways of keeping the rest of the world at arm's length.
In this work I am examining with myself, and hopefully
with others who may identify with the images, the ways
in which we are schooled to retain this privacy/secrecy.
Ways in which we are taught and encouraged to remain
coy and provocative yet innocent of a true or open nature.
I have purposefully worked toward making photographs
that have a beauty that draws one in. Once engaged,
I hope to create a potent layer of sensuality combined
with lack of ease for the viewer. A combination that
conflicts with the pleasure and beauty presented by
the nude. Through the use of uniquely grainy diffused
film and the printing of these works on a fine archival
watercolour paper, I have sought to suggest the look
and feel of my works in pigment washes. I am very pleased
with the resulting softness and the moodiness of the
images. Using photographic based matter - hence living
people - has added an element beyond the painted page.
A camera can capture a precise and entirely individualized
emotion such as the pride and regal quality that is
evident in Alexander's face, or the vulnerability of
the exposed female torso in "Isadora". The series is
now expanding beyond nudes into further symbolic works
of landscape and still life. The same hushed quality
is present. They are the places where secrets lie still.
Paula A. Stoeke
Paula Stoeke photographs
Los Angeles photographer
and painter Paula Stoeke has been using the dual media
of watercolors and photography for over twenty years
to express what one critic called her "visual poetry".
This exhibit introduces
this artist's work in an appealing presentation of photographs
printed on watercolor paper.
This format (Giclee) is
especially well suited to Stoeke's often soft focus
multi-layered images that can be compared to a series
of watercolor washes over her sensual nudes.
The photographs in this
show might be described as casting a dreamlike silence.
The figures are alive - their flesh is touchable - yet
they drift out of the frame in a ghostly trance, or
hold our attention like a hushed whisper. In contrast
to this ethereal quality, there is also a formal and
exacting knowledge of composition at work. The strictness
of color and shape placement, reminiscent of a Japanese
screen print, anchors each frame lending these apparitions
an unexpected grounding and substance.
For Stoeke, often, the camera's
mechanistic limitations, as well as the standard printing
formats for photography have proven to be a frustration.
"The coated stock papers have always had a plastic quality
that is very unappealing to me; very sterile. That slick
surface enhances photographs with a hard edge but is
antithetical to my choice of subjects and to the way
I see them. I have tried, over the years, many experimental
techniques in an attempt to bring more of a painterly
quality, a softer more easily manipulated surface, to
my photographic work.
This work, printed on traditional
soft-faced watercolor paper, comes closest to a gentle
marriage of the two disciplines; the layering and precision
that you can achieve from film, with the liquidity of
a paint brush rich with water and pigment." Paula Stoeke
has shown extensively in the United States, and last
year in Rome.
This will be her inaugural
exhibition in Monaco. Works from this series "Myth &
Memory" will be opening at the Galerie Maretti Arte
Monaco 15 October to 20 October 2003.
There will be a vernisage, open to media and invited
guests, on the evening of the 15th from 18h30.
The artist will be present
and available for interviews at that time or by appointment
through the gallery. |
