08 Nov 2012

Patricia Glave – Symboles at Galerie d'(A)

Galerie d'(A) is delighted to present Patricia Glave's latest solo exhibition entitled 'Symboles', the second exhibition of the Swiss artist to take place at the gallery. Patricia Glave plays tirelessly with words, material and symbols. In her previous exhibition, 'Duel' (2010) the artist explored all the elements that differentiate the female world from the world of men, highlighting what is at stake in our fascination with power. We now see her adopting a new register: different religions and their symbols. The dichotomy between good and evil, white and black, death and life remains at the heart of her work and her probing into the meaning of life. Nowadays it is white that dominates, creating works which are more soothing (like a return to her 'Seins-bols' series – Breast-bowls) and which counterbalance her provocative works in black.

Perhaps bearing witness to both exhibitions is 'L'Arme blanche' (weapon in white) (2008), whose function is negated by its very colour. Other symbols featuring in this exhibition are double-edged swords. As a means of tracing in chant the progression of prayer, the rosary evokes the never-ending path towards Christian contemplation and perfection. Patricia Glave uses this cult object as a starting point for meditating on the relationship between beliefs and their magical effects.

The baleful symbols, such as the flies, skulls or the crown of thorns, which we encounter in this exhibition, are counterpoised by symbols of renewal, purification and rebirth, such as buds on apple and cherry trees and the preponderance of white. Patricia Glave likes to step into the shoes of a child and respond to beauty with innocent eyes. The small, ostentatious, precious symbols, possession of which appears futile, serve merely to demonstrate that, faced with the inevitability of death and the vanity of existence; beauty and faith are indispensable since it is these that give room to our dreams.

Following her theme on the duality with weapons and war, including the fascination with power of mankind, Patricia Glave comes back to Galerie d'(A) with a new register : religions and their symbols. A natural path in which transcends a more meditative reflection on the main monotheistic religions found in the West. This first section begins with Christianity. A religion that the artist knows wells and also rich in symbolic images. Neither hate nor passion, the artist likes to question the symbolic – crowns of thorns (porcelain and drawings), eyes turned heavenwards, a giant rosary (porcelain) to say a worldwide's beads, vanitas ... – 'I like to play with this images of my past, images of pious devotees, and to question those symbols that manage to arouse so much passions ... and what passions ?' Thus the artist reflects nonchalantly on the meaning of those symbols of devotion and on the artistic impacts throughout the different period of time.


ABOUT THE ARTIST :
Born in Basel in 1960, Patricia Glave now lives and works in Lausanne, Switzerland. Between 1980 and 1984 the artist attended courses at the School of Applied Arts in Vevey (Ecole des Arts Appliqués) in Switzerland and between 1988 and 1989 at the Art Student League in New York, completing her training at Geneva University of Art and Design (École Supérieure des Arts Appliqués) in the year 1997-1998. In 2008 she gained a postgraduate degree at the Haute Ecole d'Art et de Design (HEAD) (University of Art and Design) in Geneva. She has taught at the School of Applied Arts in Vevey since 2001. Patricia Glave's career traces the progression of her thinking on our relationship with the human body and its symbolic representation in the strengths and weaknesses of the individual. Based on this, she has developed – playfully and with a sense of scorn that is both grotesque and sensual – a metaphor for the armed extension of men's hands. She treats the aggressive relationships men maintain with their own bodies and the bodies of others with considerable humour and cynicism. At the same time she has developed an elaborate concept of women's bodies as more enfolding and comforting, handling her materials as if they were human flesh. She exhibits as a solo artist and in collective exhibitions in French-speaking Switzerland, in Europe at the Decorative Arts Museum (Musée des Arts Décoratifs), the Sèvres Museum (Musée de Sèvres) and at the Galerie Favardin & de Verneuil in Paris, as well as in the United States, Japan and Korea. The artist has received several national and international awards in ceramics biennials. Patricia Glave is represented by Galerie Favardin & de Verneuil in France and Galerie d'(A) in Switzerland.