an
american in paris - matthew rose : : by leslie prisbell
©
Matthew Rose Queen Bitch, collage 2003
Edward
Said once wrote, on the subject of exiles, that "Most people are principally
aware of one culture, one setting, one home; exiles are aware of at least two,
and this plurality of vision gives rise to an awareness of simultaneous dimensions,
an awareness that--to borrow a phrase from music--is contrapuntal. For an exile,
habits of life, expression, or activity in the new environment inevitably occur
against the memory of these things in another environment. Thus both the new and
the old environment are vivid, actual, occurring together contrapuntally"[1].
Eleven years ago, Matthew Rose moved from America to France, and he now feels
at home in once foreign territory. Rose recently exhibited in Omaha USA, a show
profoundly unique, and one that deals intensely with language. As well as using
the French language in respect to some of his work, the artist writes extensively
in English, and utilises his native tongue for other creative pieces. This bilingual
thread perhaps indicates life in a contrapuntal world.
rose
to the occasion
Rose
seems to inhabit the same space as Marcel Duchamp, Salvador Dali, and Man Ray
. This US born, Paris based artist has a playful way of seeing the world that
can tip you a little off balance.
©
Matthew Rose A Perfect Friend, collage 2003
The
flier for his exhibit, titled A Perfect Friend, depicted a woman's body with a
stack of metal dinner plates where her head should be. "I told Matthew the
image was 'Tray Cheek,'" said renowned artist John Himmelfarb with a wink.
Himmelfarb's brightly colored contemporary abstracts and icon paintings are on
display along with Rose's at Gallery 72.
A
Perfect Friend is comprised of large and small prints, collages and paintings.
The prints are digitally printed on Arches paper after a book of small collages
the artist made. They fill one wall with images in the characteristic surrealist
style - women's legs attached to no body, cat eyes atop a woman's mouth, a human
body with the head of a dog. The prints are reminiscent of surrealist great Hans
Bellmer's fragmented dolls series, the photography of Claude Cahun, the leggy
dancing girl collage by Georges Hugnet. Rose is a surrealist in every sense of
the word, including the presence of unbridled desire in his work. Sure, a woman's
arm might be attached to a lobster claw, but the composition is well… sexy
as hell.
©
Matthew Rose A Perfect Friend, collage 2003
"This
I cut out from a pornographic magazine in France," Rose said, describing
the background of a collage he'd made. "I'm interested in the language
of pornography, the pose. The way she's pulling up her stockings. It's kitsch."
Parts of other illustrations and photos are cut to fill in shapes, create new
images and compositions.
Some
of Rose's prints contain cutout pieces from a 1950s children's book about science
- heating liquids and calculating volumes, for example. "When I saw these
images I said to myself, I think I can give them a much more interesting life…
so I combine things like that. And if in 10 years no one has taken any of the
pieces, I'll cut them up and do something else with them. Because the images are
meaningful to me in a lot of different ways."
A
freelance writer for publications including the New York Times, Art and Antiques,
and the Paris column for www.art-themagazine.com, Rose's fascination with language
in his work is evident. From titles such as "Queen Bitch" (an image
of a queen with the shape of a dog superimposed on it), to notes Rose had scribbled
in pencil for me as a quick bio ("Born: 1959, Profession: Surrealist, Likes:
Girls, Sign: 33 1/3") to the text that accompanied a series called Girlfriends,
Rose's use of pictorial and written language - even the French language, in which
Rose uses a machine to translate his English - is witty, humorous, and serious
all at once.
©
Matthew Rose A Perfect Friend, collage 2003
"French
friends who have seen my Girlfriends paintings said it came out very funny, how
I used the French language," Rose said of his adopted tongue. In the series,
each abstract painting, layered with glue and sanded and repainted, represents
a former girlfriend.
Rose
even employed his mother for the Omaha show: she needle pointed two wall hangings
under her son's direction. One says "murder," the other "communism."
Powerful words. Speaking from her home in South Florida, Doris Rose said she wasn't
disturbed by the words her son chose. "That's Matt," she said. "But
next time it'll be a different design. Those were most boring to needlepoint,"
she said, her Long Island dialect crackling through. "Did you want to buy
one?"
A Perfect
Friend offers viewers a refreshing art experience, with its layers of wordplay,
images, and oddness. "Besides," Rose said of his works, "I think
that they're really fun. And funny. They're a scream." An American in Paris,
indeed.
Notes
[1].
Cited in Wallach, Amei. "Shirin Neshat: Islamic Counterpoints." Art
in America October 2001: 136-143 researched by Vanessa Corbera.
Leslie
Prisbell is the editor and arts writer for Omaha Pulp, an alternative arts and
culture newsweekly in Omaha, Nebraska. She may be reached at editor@omahapulp.com
Gallery
72 contact: Bob Rogers, Gallery 72, 2709 Leavenworth, Omaha, Nebraska 68105 USA
e: gallery72@novia.net
tel: 1.402.345.3347
