#81

 

Liddy Scheffknecht
NOW
Solo show
24/05– 13/07/2024
 

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NOW. Liddy Scheffknecht's invitation to live hic et nunc (here and now) manifests itself in the manipulation of sunlight, which allows her to create forms that are both simple and delicate. Scheffknecht's works do not praise speed; on the contrary, they invite the viewer to become immersed in the present moment as it unfolds, focusing attention on the effects of the earth's rotation. This way, Liddy Scheffknecht produces striking illusionistic effects, yet in a non-demonstrative way, which disturb our senses. The photographic series Untitled (kerria japonica pleniflora) and sunpan, as well as the video wipeout, record moments when the artist uses natural light, thanks to a cut-out system affixed to a window, in order to produce optical effects. We are left wondering:‘Is it just the stroke of a sponge ? Is it really a shadow of the vase?’

In the work entitled “-”, the artist uses this typographic sign to create a hollowed-out rectangle glued to a pane of glass. Light passes only through this rectangle, which is then redrawn by the artist every seven minutes on paper laid out on the floor. Depending on the position of the sun, this shape moves across the paper, creating geometric superimpositions. The lines refer to a period of time (here, a morning), made up of intervals or pauses, and constitute a trace of the sun's movements. By revealing the writing of light, the artist unveils the invisible pact between heaven and earth. This is reminiscent of the Japanese concept of ma, which invests what exists between things: “the ma is a space-time interval, a transition, a breath, an in-between whose function is to link (en), not to separate. [...] It is a hollow from which form emerges, as in Lao-tseu's parable according to which a vase would be useless if the potter, in turning the clay, did not hollow it out at its center”. (Serge Bramly, La Transparence et le Reflet). In this way, the line is not only used to outline a thing, it exists in itself and in relation to other lines. In this sense, Liddy Scheffknecht's productions willingly discuss the categories and typologies into which we tend to classify them, playing with materiality and immateriality. The light veil that opens the exhibition, bearing the word now translated into different languages, is a clear example of this attitude. The continuity of the living world can be seen in that of the materials, which seem to melt into one another. Poetically sculpting light, the artist powerfully questions our relationship with the image and, by extension, our visual relationship with the world.

 

Camille Prunet

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PRESS RELEASE​