Mathilde Papapietro
Using simple gestures, I create images which are paintings in a calligraphic sense; some of them give the impression of three dimensions. A plant is transient, impermanent by nature, it is re-created on various surfaces such as paper, marble, a digital image, and becomes the most precise possible conjecture of the original image’ - Mathilde Papapietro wrote about her work for an exhibition in the Centre for Contemporary Art in 2002. She has been developing this artistic concept continuously. Mathilde’s world is subtle, elegant. Her calligraphic style is derived from the rhythm of nature and the philosophy of Zen Buddhism. She records frailness and impermanence but also – extracts the essence of what she encounters. Grasping what is temporary – she records the traces of individual presence. In nature - floral motifs, in her earlier work it was usually a reed stalk - Mathilde Papapietro is looking for the universal metaphor of existence.
In her recent graphics – without surrendering the crucial value of a line - Mathilde added a satiated, luminous, ‘sunny’ colour. Sunflower petals are the central motif of her new cycle, ‘Helianthe’. Despite using ‘non-material’ digital technology – digital-graphics and an ‘impermanent’ motif – a fragment of a plant, the work emanates a unique intensiveness. The flower petals are ‘bent’, ‘broken’ to a point where their shapes become a decorative sign and a linear - colour construction. A form not so much a reminder of writing as before, but more self-contained. Evoking the world of nature now seems more of a reference to the energy existing in nature, searching for a visual sign in what is living.
Mathilde Papapietro also creates with graphics, photography and installations.
