CHRISTINA MIGNOLET - CHRISTINE MARCHAND
'La tendresse du regard'
Christina Mignolet
Facing the subject in
portraiture
A portrait brings with it at least two referents. The first is the
one portrayed as a body, as an material form. The second one is the essence of
the face, the unique authenticity of the portrayed other. But, perhaps, there’s
a third one: the portrait as an inward self-portrait showing through the
portraits of the portrayed others. It seems as if in the art work of Christina
Mignolet these three layers of portraying come to an integrated synthesis. Of
course, it is none of my business to analyse the psychology of the artist. But
facing the pain, the distress, the loneliness, the human sacrifice, the
compassion and the sometimes rough innocence of her figurations, we – as an
audience – have a perception of what’s going on inside people, although one will
not generally notice it. Mignolet
succeeds in giving a particular sense to expressions. It makes us wonder what’s going on inside.
There’s some subtle meaning not expressed, not explicit, but always there,
hiding. This is precisely the idiom of her art work: an alienating and
idiosyncratic characterizing of the human being. It’s made obvious by all her different ways
of showing people: wounded children,
loving lesbians, anonymous loners, desperate young people, women in “jouissance”, secret moments,
innocent girls, fearfully eyes, girls as siameses twins, etc. It makes for a
surprising “non existing” unity between the model and the painted result.
Through this Mignolet makes it possible to make the human subject appear as a
simulacrum rather than as an origin. The painted face seems to be a lie that
tells the truth. Everything happening
inside the gap between the origin and the painted portrait, between the artists private
experiences and the way she puts all of it in frame, is of course left clouded
in mystery, in an unconscious process. Mignolets portraits are not at all
refering to mass-media-produced stereotypes. There’s someone made of flesh and
blood outside the portrait. But this particular person relives
simultaneously inside the portrait. Although the face is so fundamentally linked
to our identity, we can use this same face to hide our deepest feelings. Instinctively – but improperly as we know -
we associate the outward appearance with the soul of the person. Mignolets
paintings dig into the delicate
ambiguity the mask and the subjectivity behind it represent. The personality she
sketches looks as an undivided subject, but at the same time as someone who
lives the lives of people threatened by the miseries, the hopes, the ups and
downs of humankind. More than anything, there’s room for an affectionate
compassion in all her portraiture.
Joannes Késenne (Phd, lecturer Theory of Art at the MAD-Faculty,
Belgium)
Christine Marchand
The
main source of inspiration for me is while being along the way, the
confrontation with the surrounding.The passing countryside stimulates my
imagination, often impregnated with memories. Besides images and pictures
classical music also motivates my life. Music waives my emotions and makes me
watch at and observe my environment differently.Inspiration I find in the
spatial structure by Cézanne, the expressiveness of Munch, the spirituality in
the work of Antoni Tàpies. I love the playfulness and sensuality in the work of
Ronald Noorman and the intelligent universe of Jürgen Partenheimer; both artists
who achieve a great expressiveness
with limited resources.
