Memory As Art
explorations of the subconscious revealed on canvas
BY LISA LEBLANC-BERRY
Wonder Woman, 2008
As an ardent film buff, one of my all-time favorite movies I have watched repeatedly since childhood is The Wizard of Oz. So it came as a refreshing surprise to discover New Orleans artist Nicole Charbonnet’s dreamy renditions of the film as mixed media on canvas.
As an ardent film buff, one of my all-time favorite movies I have watched repeatedly since childhood is The Wizard of Oz”. So it came as a refreshing surprise to discover New Orleans artist Nicole Charbonnet’s dreamy renditions of the film as mixed media on canvas.
“I use films such as The Wizard of Oz and Western films because they are a part of our cultural heritage,” Charbonnet explains. “I watch the films, and I do film stills such as Dorothy running away from Kansas with Toto before the storm. I also have this kiss series going on with Film Noir; they are so melodramatic. They have suspense, like the cowboy movies. I find myself drawn to those images. Since I am working with memory, it pulls people into something familiar and automatically triggers a sense of nostalgia.”
Charbonnet incorporates images and textures associated with the past, and she encourages the viewer to build their own connections and associations to the imagery found in her paintings. Various figurative elements are inspired by artists such as Manet, Pollock, and Audubon, while other images are from movie genres such as Film Noir and Westerns as well as the films O Brother, Where Art Thou and The Wizard of Oz. These images serve as a metaphor for the phenomenon of recollection simulating the process of memory itself.
“The subject of the work is memory and the passage of time and how we perceive things,” Charbonnet reveals. “Often the way we see is not just visually, it is also through memory. Westerns were really popular in the 1950s. We picked this weird myth of the cowboy as a metaphor. There was a resurgence of this cowboy image in the 1990s with the president. I wanted to make the point: This is a really tired metaphor. We need to move on. So I kind of erase the images, then I sand them down,” she explains. “It is the same with the Film Noir. You have these very stereo-typical depictions of men and women that just wouldn’t happen today. I take a similar stance, more sociological rather than political. The Wizard of Oz is an exception to that.”
Charbonnet’s paintings are densely textured and layered with chalky washes
Zebra, 2008
and translucent paper. The deceptively simple images evoke faded wallpaper or painted signs. Some come across as ghostly images that suggest partial recollections from the dim recesses of memory; details are lost in much the way memories fade over time. She alternates between clearly rendered lines and partial obscurity, allowing images that invite the viewer into the work in an exploration of subconscious associations. They are ripe with the artist’s background in traditional study of the fine arts, made poignant with her unique perspective.
“My field of vision resembles an archeological excavation,” Charbonnet asserts. “The resulting surfaces retain or reveal a memory of preexisting stages; some images, shapes, colors and gestures are obfuscated, while others remain visible, however shaped by subsequent events.”
Charbonnet’s paintings do not always look like paintings as we know them. “We see only through a cloudy lens of our own memories, dreams, desires, and intentions. Painting for me serves as a metaphor for the phenomenon of recollection, simulating the process of memory itself.” Consistent with this approach, she incorporates gestures and words as an attempt to encourage the viewer to make new connections. “Ideally, these juxtapositions facilitate more than a feeling of nostalgia and promote further exploration into issues relevant to the world today.”
Many of Charbonnet’s images have historical and archetypal associations and are meant to be read metaphorically and extrapolated onto current social and political situations. “Incorporating images from our cultural memory allows microcosm to map macrocosm and illuminates a past that is always present,” she says. “Scavenging and interpreting the past opens a gateway into the future.”
A foray into Charbonnet’s artistic world reveals an honesty seldom seen in what often passes for abstraction today. The artist exhibits in New Orleans at the Arthur Roger Gallery as well as in New York City, Sun Valley, and Jackson Hole; she has upcoming exhibitions in Nantucket and Portola Valley.