“Pareidolia”… a work of art with two faces
PAREIDOLIE - 2023 - acrylic on canvas 70 x 50
Two faces
Pareidolia…: according to the definition given on Wikipedia: “A pareidolia (from the ancient Greek παρά / pará, “next [to], instead [of]”, and from the common noun εἴδωλον / eídōlon, “image, appearance, form” ) is the process occurring under the effect of visual or auditory stimuli, leading to recognizing a familiar shape in a landscape, a cloud, smoke, an ink stain, etc., a human voice in a noise, or words (usually in one's language) in a song or speech spoken in a language one does not understand.
Visual pareidolia are part of optical illusions.
I wanted to talk to you about this work born from a sketch and a reflection following a debate with a friend, a painter like me. Together, we often discuss the course of life and its evolution. From memory, it seems to me that the comments made came from the observation, or rather from the way of evoking the term resilience through the current human posture.
A WORK WITH TWO FACES
“Pareidolia”: I wanted to represent the contemporary version of our national symbol, Asterix not to name it, “the little Gaul”, the one who resists everything, who with his friend, a wild boar lover, endlessly fights the invader and try to preserve the benefits of a life that is theirs. This vision of a current Gaul, somewhat standardized, without real authenticity, responds to an image of influencers. With its “hipster” style, which I adopted to better maintain a scent of bohemian and nature, it appears much less combative.
He hit the road… with an American childhood cart “The radio flyer” , decorated with important elements for this type of trip and to complete his ecological posture: his new holy grail. His lifelong friend abandoned him, preferring to juggle with the local menhirs and in view of the very divergent opinions of our time, preferred to free himself from too divergent debates.
This new little Gaul is sitting on a bench with his back to a stone wall, he holds the handle of his trolley in one hand and in the other a notebook that a smartphone lacks. His emerald ring gives him this somewhat ennobled dimension of a hero who has spanned the ages and retains a coloring linked to his costume.
Above this stone wall, a tree with dense foliage seems to observe him, with a look full of empathy and sadness. The few falling leaves can be seen as tears...
I worked on this painting for a long time in successive stages, with more or less long downtimes, sudden and late corrections. But I think I have arrived at the expression of my feelings or at least in agreement with an idea of a certain resilience.
Despite the format of 70 x 50, the work retains the trace of a square base ... the top of the stone wall (i.e. the top of the hair) marks the square dimension.
Life scene…portrait…conceptual work…realism…I don’t know what category to attribute to this work. But maybe you have a different perception. So, I would love to read your comment below.
