Evi Keller – "Matter-Light" Solo Exhibition

Text and photos / Chen Chi-Hsiang Time: May 31 to July 18 Venue: Jeanne Bucher Gallery
At the end of darkness is the beginning of light; light is everywhere, also hidden within dark matter. Light originates from the mysteries of the universe and is the source of all life on Earth. In art, whether painting, sculpture, photography, video, and so on, it reveals both internal and external light; even all matter has an inseparable relationship with light. Light becomes a fundamental element of artistic creation, an indispensable material and spiritual component. Mysterious light is omnipresent, subtly even in the shadows, even in pitch blackness, as if when closing one's eyes, the light comes from a mysterious inner depth.

Artist Evi is someone I discovered last year while gallery hopping, during an off-site exhibition for the yia art fair in a church in the Marais. Her matter-light was captivating and exhilarating; it had been a long time since I felt such a strong sensation. Discussing art and her works with her, I was moved by her passion for art and her explorations, leaving a deep impression of both her person and her work. Unexpectedly, this month while gallery hopping like checking the fields, I surprisingly encountered her solo exhibition at the established Jeanne Bucher gallery in the Marais. Upon entering, I ran into the artist herself, delighted to once again see such wonderful, mysterious matter-light and the consciousness from the depths.

Evi's creative materials are simple and special: sheets of transparent plastic cloth. She applies layers of transparent paint onto this translucent material, searching until an inner feeling emerges. Suddenly, through external light, a deep inner natural landscape is revealed, and with the undulating and changing tones of light, light becomes musical rhythm and melody, dancing with the ambient light. Thus matter becomes light; poetic and picturesque, it embodies an extraordinary volume and an ingenious new form. Full of mystery, the transformative images sometimes resemble natural landscapes, plants and flowers, minerals, figures, etc., hovering between mental imagery, imagery and abstraction, time and space, internal and external, perception and consciousness, the infinitely large and the infinitely small. They are often presented suspended from above, leaning against walls, or framed as paintings, with the works situated between painting and sculpture or object.

Another video work of hers is titled "Towards the light-silent transformations," projected directly onto overlapping screens and the matter-light plastic material. The audience continues the journey towards the light; in the pitch black of deep night, nothing is visible, as if within the dark matter of the universe, sensing a magical volume. As the writer Zeno Bianu wrote: "…finally closing the eyes, in absolute black, as a momentary purification…" (Note). Slowly, led by the gentle musical rhythm through the images, one traverses the darkness to greet the light. Sunlight spills dreamily into a forest surrounding a lake; water light and reflections dreamily soak into the field of light and shadow. Slowly, the transforming black and white light becomes like an abstract painting; reality contrasts with a poetic and spiritual volume, generating another kind of novel vibration within the spatial form. Light dances to the musical beat, embodying a mind and consciousness, merging form and nature, until the entire image is soaked in light, between perception and imagination, the visible and the invisible, the expressive and the mysterious, revealing the mysteries of existence.

Note: From the press release for the Evi Keller – "Matter-Light" solo exhibition.