Venice Diaries II: Claire Tabouret: I am spacious, singing flesh

Posted on by cmarthoughts

Review
Claire Tabouret: I am spacious, singing flesh
April 23 – November 27, 2022
FABA in collaboration with Almine Rech
Palazzo Cavanis Dorsoduro 920, 30123 Venice

The images shows a bronze head in profile with water drops falling from the chin. It is a detail of an art work by Claire Tabouret in her exhibition 'I am spacious, singing flesh' at Palazzo Cavanis in Venice.
Claire Tabouret: I am spacious, singing flesh, installation view, Palazzo Cavanis Dorsoduro 920, Venice, April 23 – November 27, 2022. © Claire Tabouret – Courtesy of the artist and Almine Rech. Photo: Ugo Carmeni 2022.

This exhibition is perfectly curated. Creating a dialogue between times, media, and cultures. Devotional images meet contemporary painting, sculpture meets film, collage, and Venetian chandeliers; venus meets the vamp. 

There are several topics to be discerned: shelter; the self/the other; collectiveness; woman- and motherhood; the enchanted/fairytale. Claire Tabouret’s paintings impress by their empathy, immediacy, sincerity and autonomy. Neon colours keep on flashing up, marking a mouth, a neckline, a halo; or seemingly discrete parts of the painting. The artist applies the vibrant, fluorescent paint before continuing in darker tones.  In other works, somber colours convey a stunning serious- and boldness. 

The gazes of the sitters are insistent, prompting or serious. Constituting a mysterious and eerie quality despite the changing subjects. Children become silent judges, women confident, yet calm contenders.
The paintings seem to exist in another time, halted and apart. They possess their own temporality, forcing their sense of time-vacuum upon the viewer. 

The image shows a seated female sculpture on a pedestal and a painting with two female heads on the right. It is an installation view of Claire Tabouret's exhibition 'I am spacious, singing flesh' at Palazzo Cavanis in Venice.
Claire Tabouret: I am spacious, singing flesh, installation view, Palazzo Cavanis Dorsoduro 920, Venice, April 23 – November 27, 2022. © Claire Tabouret – Courtesy of the artist and Almine Rech. Photo: Ugo Carmeni 2022.

The ex-voto paintings and sculpture within the exhibition, dating from the sixteenth- and seventeenth-century, and the 6th-3rd-century BC respectively, position the paintings in the broader #timeline of art history, making apparent a somewhat universal connection.

The garden of the exhibition is a centre of peace. Tabouret’s Baigneurs, female bronze sculptures with water pouring down their surface, perfectly match the 15th-century architecture. The sound of the water creates a sense of consistency and flow, which recalls a fundamental theme in Tabouret’s practice: fluidity. Through costumes, masks, make-up, and water; as an internal and external phenomenon. Here, it becomes eternity.

Complementing Marlene Dumas’ exhibition at Palazzo Grassi, Claire Tabouret’s paintings demonstrate the capacities of contemporary painting. Her exhibition I am spacious, singing flesh is a must-see for its contribution to both contemporary art and curation.

The image shows the garden of Palazzo Cavanis in Venice with a sculpture by Claire Tabouret in the centre.
Claire Tabouret: I am spacious, singing flesh, installation view, Palazzo Cavanis Dorsoduro 920, Venice, April 23 – November 27, 2022. © Claire Tabouret – Courtesy of the artist and Almine Rech. Photo: Ugo Carmeni 2022.