Alice AttieNear and Far

Online Exclusive

16 May 2020

We can point to something with our art; we can try to lift above or penetrate through, or burrow into, but the most, I think, we can be certain of is that any circumstance will generate works that are particular and unique to that circumstance.”

– Alice Attie

C 19

Alice Attie

C19, 2020

gouache on paper

30,5 x 30,5 cm (12 x 12 in.), framed 43 x 43 cm (17 x 17 in.)

Zoom View

PDF

Alice Attie

C19, 2020

gouache on paper

31 x 31 cm (12 x 12 in.), framed 43 x 43 cm (17 x 17 in.)

Zoom View

PDF

Alice Attie

C19, 2020

gouache on paper

30,5 x 30,5 cm (12 x 12 in.), framed 43 x 43 cm (17 x 17 in.)

Zoom View

PDF

Alice Attie

C19, 2020

gouache on paper

31 x 31 cm (12 x 12 in.), framed 43 x 43 cm (17 x 17 in.)

Zoom View

PDF

The variations may be discernible or they may be hidden, subtle or overt, but they are nuanced and continuous. My works often employ repeated marks, which meet the page, over and over and over, in incremental shifts. Those shifts interest me both because they are often very gradual and because they accrue to become visually like a shimmer or a wave or merely something that points to the beauty of the repetitive, the beauty of its impossibility.”

– Alice Attie

read inGerman

For Alice Attie, language and drawing are closely connected, as are writing and signs. She is fascinated by the multitude of possibilities of leaving a mark on a piece of paper. She adds forms, ciphers, and structures to the vocabulary of letters and numbers in order to visualize philosophical deliberations, trains of thought, and narratives. In her drawings, she appears to be testing a new system of signs that transcends the possibilities of language to reveal the connections between cognition and imagination. Attie’s works are often based on scientific and philosophical writings, the language of which she transforms into visual and poetic worlds. The artist, who lives in New York, has also published several books of poetry.

Attie’s gouaches belong to her new ongoing series C19, which she began in spring in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. C19 refers not only to this new virus, but also to ideas associated with it, like crisis and contemplation.

The repetitive execution of the same gesture and thus the repetition of the same form in minimal variations is the defining aspect of this series of works. The small sheets of paper are entirely covered by almost identical strokes placed closely together, creating a rhythm and delicately calibrating color nuances of warm red, purple, and orange hues that structure the picture. Like a mantra, one stroke follows the next in a seemingly meditative process that is abruptly interrupted by the picture’s edges, which create a clearly distinguished and defined frame. Attie explores the potential of abstraction through her minimal markings, forming the individual small strokes into a pattern that expands into a single abstract form, ultimately filling the entire pictorial space.

Portraits of Ambiguity

Alice Attie

Three, Thinking II, 2020

gouache on paper

46 x 61 cm (18 x 24 in.), framed 50,5 x 65,5 cm (20 x 25 3/4 in.)

Zoom View

PDF

Alice Attie

Three, Thinking I, 2020

gouache on paper

46 x 61 cm (18 x 24 in.), framed 50,5 x 65,5 cm (20 x 25 3/4 in.)

Zoom View

PDF

Three, Thinking I and II, might signify what is going on between us or within us in the way of thoughtfulness and contemplation. ‘Ambiguous’ because, I believe, most things are. We cannot name them; we can rarely describe them, but our efforts to do so are pervasive. We think things through ceaselessly.”

– Alice Attie

read inGerman

With Portraits of Ambiguity, Attie has created a series of works that explore the human body and the ambiguity of its physical and emotional modes of expression. The title refers to the way these portraits are rendered: The facial features are blurred and only hinted at in a minimal way. Attie forms the shapeless, abstracted figures through a lively combination of expressive brushstrokes and color planes that bleed into each other. This creates a tension in which the figures, which are divorced from all context, seem to be caught in a strong dynamic movement, reflecting an inner emotional agitation and a mysterious ambiguity.

Tumbling Numbers

Alice Attie

Tumbling Numbers, 2020

ink on paper

76,5 x 57,5 cm (30 1/8 x 22 5/8 in.), framed 81,5 x 61,5 cm (32 x 24 1/4 in.)

Zoom View

PDF

read inGerman

Alice Attie’s works are often based on texts, which she abstracts into structures, forms, and new systems of signification. In the ink drawing Tumbling Numbers, miniscule numbers take shape seemingly at random within the space, only to coalesce into a loosely formed sphere already sketched on the paper. The elementary form of the sphere is a recurring motif in Attie’s works – be it as a recognizable form, a fragment, or as a space left blank. The sphere seems to act as the key component here, although it is only a fragment – one that, for the artist, represents the core of all possibilities, despite being incomplete. Attie intends it as a philosophical element: By preventing something definite from being established, the fragment allows continuity.

Tumbling Numbers is a continuation of Attie’s series focusing on language and ciphers. On a formal level, the individual works of this series are reminiscent of planetary maps. For the artist, they contain all available means of language: All the potentialities of communication as we know them, all the ciphers of our language, are there, tumbling into any imaginable combinatory sense or nonsense.

Before and After

come dear one comebe close be near from fartime in the increments of timesuspends

I have found and lostnot entering not leavingnot here not there as if sound as if rain

tapping the mind isthe chirp of the birdI thought I saw I thought I heardsomething like this

unease we cannot nameas the hawk circlesas we walk the long loopalong the long afternoon

the frogs in small clustersdropping their croaks into deep silenceleaning into the reedstheir gold tones like chords play the mind

heave us into thoughtcome dear one comebe close be near from farbe steady as the tree is steady

gather back and forththese singular cries to imaginethe bird seeing your seeing eye seeingbe close be near from far

measure the days the years the hoursas we are as we were as we will beas the hour is presenceis silence itself

is a mystery tumbling through ushere and here and hereto steady the stranger knocking a doorto steady the voice breaking up breaking down

to steady the oakto swing as birdsto branchesas leaves in flutter

as tongue to pagecome steady usas something is and will besteady and begin again

in the reach of languageshaping and un-shapingthese things that are and are not and areagain the sun behind the grey cloud

just barely just hardly into the slow seasonjust barely just hardly as knowers knowsomething not yet ours is turning usaround and around as if and as though

come dear one comesteady the undone doingssteady the divisions dividedsteady time in the branch visible

be close be near from farcome as darkness into daylight comesas time through the budswill swell into presence

will steady time in the branch visiblebe close be near from farcome as darkness into daylight comesas we are as we were as we will be

—

Alice Attie, 2020

Black Figures

Alice Attie

Untitled, 2015

torn paper, collage

30,5 x 23 cm (12 x 9 in.), framed 42 x 34 cm (16 1/2 x 13 3/8 in.)

Zoom View

PDF

Alice Attie

Untitled, 2015

torn paper, collage

30,5 x 23 cm (12 x 9 in.), framed 42 x 34 cm (16 1/2 x 13 3/8 in.)

Zoom View

PDF

Alice Attie

Untitled, 2015

torn paper, collage

30,5 x 23 cm (12 x 9 in.), framed 42 x 34 cm (16 1/2 x 13 3/8 in.)

Zoom View

PDF

Like marionettes in the theater of life, these anonymous black figures, claiming the white paper, limbs bounding and mouths open, mirror and mime us. They are strange and familiar.”

– Alice Attie

read inGerman

What constitutes a body? How does it work, what story does it tell, and what can it endure? These are questions Attie addresses in her series Black Figures. The figures dance, bend, and distort, sometimes in a humorous, sometimes in an acrobatic way. They are always in motion, assuming poses involving many gestures. Their bodies are their instrument; their postures are reminiscent of dance improvisation, expressing a broad spectrum of human emotions, like grief, ecstasy, surprise, joy, and insecurity. At the same time, they are controlled in their sweeping and expressive gestures, almost never crossing the boundary defined by the edges of the picture.

The process of their creation, on the other hand, is based on chance. Attie tears a sheet of black paper into small pieces and reassembles them into a collage, which is how the figures acquire their curious habitus. This allows for several levels of interpreting inner emotions. It is this play with such possibilities and ambiguous perceptions which is so characteristic of Attie’s work.

We Talked About it Last Night

we watched the snow

blanketingdisappearing

about the plaguewe stopped short

we declined

as the sunin the distance

declined

its glowin steep descent

as we talked about it

listening to Art Tatumthe piano keys in rapid sequence

became metaphorspossible and impossible

nowsomething

perhaps the windlifting the leaf

descendingsoftly

is the mindlistening

to somethingin the distance

a screechperhaps bird

perhapsthought

troublinginto full throat

I am here am possible

if I canI will

in an effortthe sky

arching into daylightdipping into darkness

is an effortas one thought

findsanother

we stray

as ifas though

threadingunraveling

unravelingthreading

to bepart of

aswe are

part ofas time

dispersestime

we talked about it last night

—

Alice Attie, 2020

Learn more about

Alice Attie

Photo

Markus Wörgötter

Inquire about the artist/s, presented or related artworks

Inquire

Top of Page

Artists

Site and Design by virtuera.dev