júlia mazzoni

“The only certainty I hold in my hands is the thread I sew, which connects me umbilically to the world. Enhance tactile optics. Eye that plunges the world with its entire body” (DERDYK, 2010, personal translation).

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The body, as the main mean of contact with the world, acts and is acted upon by it, in addition to being formed by the sum of experiences and connections with others. About this mutual influence between body and world, the philosopher Emanuele Coccia (2018) reflects:

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“The living being is not simply in the world, since the world itself is intentionally in the living being. Thus, every time knowledge is emitted, one cannot help but pour a part of oneself into the world, to be alienated, to let one's interiority escape into the outside world” (COCCIA, 2018, p.53, personal translation).

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With that being said, representing the physical presence of the body, which is made up of many layers inside, can be seen an attempt of entering into the intimacy of the other and into the possible connections that may result from this contact. In this way, the idea of the thread of life enables that each of these bodies represented in the work, formed by lines, expand and intertwine with others, resulting in possible shared experiences.

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“For me a portrait is a vehicle to see the whole universe. Through a face I can see everything that exists”, said the artist Elizabeth Peyton (Thaddaeus Ropac, 2022). David Hockney also explained that, for him, “a portrait is a private view of someone (...) it’s like a diary entry” (Thaddaeus Ropac, 2023). These statements not only relate to my own point of view of portraying someone’s image, but also to the idea of using portraiture as a tool to enter another person’s intimacy, and showcase the way that each body is a new world composed by many layers in its interior.

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As such, Claudette Johnson’s works are a reference in this sense. The artist states that portraying people - especially people who she's close with - allows to project their presence in the world and brings a sense of intimacy and encountering (TATE, 2021), increasing the feeling of connection between bodies: the artist's body and the body of those who are being represented.

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Fayga Ostrower stated that the process of creation means an experiential process that encompasses an expansion of consciousness (OSTROWER, 2014, p.134). From the moment one understands that the creation process itself is an expansion of living (2014), which is an action of the body in the world, connections can be built between art practice and corporeality and, consequently, with representation of this body in the artwork. The representation of the body is entangled with the body in the process of sewing. That is, practice intertwined with subject.

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References

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Claudette Johnson (2018) Figure in blue [Pastel and gouache on paper]. Available at: https://courtauld.ac.uk/whats-on/claudette-johnson/ (Accessed: 24 nov. 2023).

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COCCIA, E. (2018) A vida sensível. Florianópolis: Cultura e Barbárie.

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DERDYK, E. (2010) Linha de costura. 2nd edition. Belo Horizonte: C/Arte.

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OSTROWER, F. (2014) Criatividade e processos de criação. 30th edition. Petrópolis: Editora Vozes.

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Tate (2021) Artist Claudette Johnson – 'Giving Space to the Presence of a Black Woman'. 12 April. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuGXGyKL5wk&ab_channel=Tate (Accessed: 24 nov. 2023).

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Thaddaeus Ropac (2022) Elizabeth Peyton: transformer. Available at: https://ropac.net/exhibitions/622-elizabeth-peyton-transformer/ (Acessed: 12 jan. 2024).

 

Thaddaeus Ropac (2023) Drawn into the present: portraits on paper. Available at: https://ropac.net/exhibitions/685-drawn-into-the-present-portraits-on-paper/ (Acessed: 12 jan. 2024).