Dennis Hollingsworth

Fragments of Paradise

This is the image of the invitation card for a show curated by my dealer iin Z?rich, Mark M?ller (Gallery): Fragments of Paradise.

The invitation:
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Kunsthalle Palazzo

30. August bis 12. Oktober, 2003
Vernissage: Freitag 29. August 18.30, 2003

Fragmente des Paradieses
(abstrakte Malerei)

Urs Frei, Dennis Hollingsworth, Jonathan Lasker,
Bernd Mechler, Judy Millar, ?Adrian Schiess,
Christine Streuli, ?Toon Verhoef und Robert Zandvliet

kuratiert von Mark M?ller, Marina R?ttimann
und ?Markus Weggenmann, Z?rich

F?hrung: Sonntag 21. September 2003, 14.00 Marina R?ttimann

?ffnungszeiten: Di - Fr 14 - 18 Uhr, Sa/So 13 - 17 Uhr

Kunsthalle Palazzo, Bahnhofplatz,
Postfach 277, CH - 4410 Liesthal BL
kunsthalle@palazzo.ch / www.palazzo.ch
0041 61 921 50 62

Die Ausstellung wird unterst?tzt von Kanton Basel Landschaft, Erziehungs- und Kulturdirektion, Bundesamt f?r Kultur, Art Council of New Zealand und Mondriaan Stichting (Mondriaan Foundation).

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You can check out Mark's website at:

www.markmueller.ch

There's several aspects that I like about the show. First, I'm in great company... especially with Jonathon Lasker in it. Then, the juicy image of seashells and the notion of Paradise evokes Nature's perfection. Much of the form in which I find in pigment comes from the thick liquid physics of the paint itself and this is sympatico with nature's formalism.

The idea of fragmentation reminds me of a trip to Guanajuato, Mexico back in '88. There, I saw the work of Rivera (Guanajuato is his childhood home) and I became aware of the birth of the Modern sensibility in Mexico. The artists at that time (and I'm thinking of the muralists Ozorco and others seen the Palace of Fine Arts in Mexico City) were wrestling with the products of new technology and the debris of the former classically traditional world. I remember a drawing that assembled fragments of girders, classical busts, reinforced concrete... They were more wistful then, but wrestling with the persistant dislocation of Modern life will always be with us. At least we are less wistful now.

Another affinity with the image of seashells: I grew up playing in sea water as a kid. My family traveled a great deal and we lived in many tropical places. My dad was into the Jacques Cousteau thing, and he strapped diving tanks on us in our early teens (us, being my brother and I). So, the snorkel view of the world is a natural one for me. People have identified this in my work... but I try not to play it up too much.

There is a an suggestion of utopia, and not the idea of incarnating a perfection on earth, but the grounded suggestion that we can get only fugitive fragments of that paradise here and now in our very fragile... very mortal life. This seems to me an idea of a life that is very present but strung taut towards a better tomorrow. Fugitive, fragmentary, fragile... but not futile.

A saving grace.

I write this, thinking of my commitment to paint from the affirmative, my Oedipal rejection of the art world I learned of in school at the end of the 80's. I remember Lawrence Wiener's words: "We questioned the answers that were given to us in school."

(This, I write all before reading Mark's curatorial statement.)