Immersed in Space versus Flatness

Rouen, 2005, George Rousse

Kazimir Malevich, a pioneer of geometric abstract art. In his famous work, the seminal Black square which was the first form in which non-objective feeling came to be expressed, he described the square as feeling and the white field as the void beyond this feeling. Artist George Rousse uses the visual qualities inherent in Malevich’s work but does both artists share similar ideas?
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George Rousse is a French contemporary photographer, in his works are painted alterations of an existing three-dimensional space which flattens out space and in the end, they appear as photographs. His photographs become an optical illusion of these spaces, as a viewer, one is challenged by the verisimilitude of the memory these images create in context with its flatness. George’s approach of imposing a solid shape on top of these spaces help call attention to the form here, one experiences the rhythm, balance, perspective flattening and pictorial record of these spaces. To illustrate, there is a quality of the yang theory in George’s photography, it’s the dark versus the light which calls our attention back to Malevich’s idea of feeling versus the void beyond feeling.

Places contain metaphoric or symbolic meaning that goes beyond the surface appearance of a particular landscape or architecture. Sometimes, we realize that the society is one huge influence on how transformation occurs in a place or space. For George, he tends to use spaces that are inspired by its history or social events.

“…His raw material is Space: the space of deserted buildings. Taking his inspiration from a site's architectonic quality and the light he finds there, he quickly chooses a « fragment » and creates a mise-en-scène, keeping in mind his ultimate goal, creating a photographic image. In these empty spaces, Georges Rousse constructs a kind of utopia that projects his vision of the world - his imaginary universe.
His creation both expresses his artistic intentions and resonates with his impressions of the site, its history, and its culture. Finally, it results in a photograph, a flat plane, so the shapes he paints and draws, and the volumes and architectural constructions he creates in those massive spaces seem fractured or split on different levels. His photo masterfully brings together painting, architecture, and drawing. It carves out a new space in which the artist's fictive world becomes visible.
At the heart of this questioning the definition of art, his work deals with our relationship to Space and Time.
In his photographs, Georges Rousse compels us to read architecture as static, images as immobile, then gradually transforms our perception of Space and Reality. The final photographic image perturbs our visual habits and convictions by presenting three kinds of space: the real space, where he makes his installations; an imaginary utopian space, which the artist invents and then carefully builds at his chosen site; and a new space that is visible from only one spot when he clicks the camera shutter, and exists only in the photo.”
                                                                                                                                                                                 George Rousse.

In the light of this, the concept of feeling versus the void beyond the feeling is somewhat relative to my concept of tranquil and chaos. The feeling of the chaos and the void as the tranquil, also, the hidden representation hidden in my paintings as a static imagery of an experience of momentary pause and this is inherent of landscapes. Often, I create new places by transforming the imagery from the momentary pause I experience, likewise, these imagery and spaces are not tied to occurrences rather they are metaphoric and symbolic.
In the previous week, I started working on miniature linear landscape sketches which will serve as a reference for the subject of tranquility in my paintings. Basically, it’s a work in progress and I’ll be posting more on finished paintings in the subsequent post.

Have a great week.