Exhibition in Geneva –
Mai-Thu Perret deploys an animist pantheon at Mezzanin
The Geneva visual artist brings together ceramics, tapestries and watercolors for a dialogue between mediums on the borders of the natural and domestic worlds.
Published today at 8:31 a.m.
Inspired by the titan arum, a majestic ceramic plant plays the leading role in the exhibition.
ANNIK WETTER
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With its priapic pistil emerging from a purple corolla, the large ceramic flower (152 cm high) has the attributes of both beauty and monster. Evoking the famous arum titan – or “titan phallus” – this colossal plant, whose inflorescence can reach more than 3 meters and the smell is similar to that of carrion, constitutes one of the centerpieces of “Destroy, she said”, the monographic exhibition that the Galerie Mezzanine dedicated to the Geneva visual artist Mai-Thu Perret.
Inspired by a box that the artist has at home, a ceramic frog has appeared in the window. “Vast rumbling thunder and not a drop of rain VII”, 2023.
MAREIKE TORCH
The exhibition borrows its title from a book and a film by Marguerite Duras: “In this work there is a strong antagonistic relationship between humans and nature,” explains the 48-year-old artist. And I wanted to question what creation means, in an era where destruction due to wars and climatic disasters is a source of anguish and anger.”
Woven in a Mexican goblin workshop, this tapestry was made based on a watercolor painted by Mai-Thu Perret.
MAREIKE TORCH
Frog and mushroom
However, a relative serenity emerges from the objects that Mai-Thu Perret has chosen to place in dialogue. Some refer directly to the landscape and the natural world, such as this lazy frog in the window, these pieces made of mushroom caps that grow on the walls or these ceramic plaques carved with abstract movements reminiscent of waves or moss on a tree trunk. TREE. “There is a little animist pantheon side to all of this,” she admits.
Captive of the material, abstract movements evoke swells or lichen.
MAREIKE TORCH
Others directly allude to daily life, like a series of watercolors depicting bowls, which the artist links to her readings on Japanese Mingei, an artistic movement born in 1925 advocating the revaluation of craftsmanship and beauty in everyday objects. “I like to mix mediums, composing and breaking down bodies of my work to make connections.” The halos left by the water on the paper thus echo those which adorn a tapestry made in Mexico based on a painting by the artist.
A series of four watercolors depicting bowls refers to the tea ceremony and Japanese Mingei, an artistic movement born in 1925 advocating the revaluation of craftsmanship and the beauty of everyday objects.
MAREIKE TORCH
Until February 22 at Mezzanin, 63, rue des Maraîchers, 1205 Geneva. Tue – Fri 2 p.m. – 6 p.m., Sat 2 p.m. – 5 p.m. On Thursday, January 16, on the occasion of the Back to School Day, Mai-Thu Perret will be in conversation with curator Samuel Gross at 6:30 p.m.
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