Text | Resume | Exhibitions

A personal chronology. Paths of Esther Casanova.

“No hay como creer en lo que afirmamos para estimar que nuestra creencia será aceptada y seguida por todos. Ahora se despojarían de sus trágicos envoltorios y prorrumpirían en una profunda salutación a la vida.”

Pathways chromatic sliding desires characterize, in short, the works of the series paths, which presents Esther Casanova. Desires represented, whose origin comes from the personal journeys of the artist environs of physical spaces in different cities and different countriesThe juxtaposition of images and supports materializes the plastic compositions in context. Photos transferred to transparencies, drawings, pictures of mass circulation elements, all manipulated by the artist. The result is a radical change in literal references of humans, is the challenge of turning, give new meaning to the original. As stated by the artist herself, "is challenging to make sense. "The resulting composition overflows chromaticism and symmetry, and "has a bit of mystery," as confirmed by Casanova. In this mystery described by the artist, structured analysis of the composition itself. Like a puzzle, the viewer is faced with a maze of possibilities that make up the whole; maze recreated from the reversible process of "one at a time or all at once."

The search, the unexpected, the new discoveries that Casanova proposes recreate in the viewer, games, sensory stimuli, memories, provoke reactions suggestive transiting between supports, techniques and artistic styles. Are created, so gradual and subtle sensory transitions between the parts, and the whole body of work together.

The artist enhances symmetry which is diluted in ways that, in turn, are structured light chains pictorial compositions and metaphors. Chromatic sustained currents in instantaneous and transitional and cause the appearance, hybrid, new meanings plastics
There is thus an analytical mind in order to structure the composition of forms. Symbols and consequences in the production of an artist who synthesizes in his works, the complex possibilities that painting, for instance, offers, grounded, these possibilities in artistic research.
The composition, with remarkable originality and proper, reveals the whole as well as the fascination of the artist and the reaction by the prevalence and intensity of the parties therein. Paths in the series, the processes of evolution and maturity copyright research on the production of Casanova are evident. It is revealed here that "the past, whilst retaining the attractive ghost, resume light and movement of life and become present."

Therefore, production can be considered Esther Casanova intellectual pictorial stripped of conventional, such as a greeting to the deep life.

Andres I. M. Hernández
Master of Visual Arts
São Paulo, March 13, 2013

Materiality, geometry and chromatic plastic in the production of Esther Casanova

Containment, displacement, limits, consequences, forms, technique, immersion approach, transparency are terms that are manifest in the production of Esther Casanova.

Casanova deals with different topics on different media . Resume her works and update formal techniques of history of art and design with contemporary bias and discussion.

In different series, the transmutation in the structure, color, light are evident. The artist explores these elements and gives them a particular distinction, lending them setting, symbolism and context. Appear as well, in particular meanings in language and tone aesthetic, formal and conceptual mobilizing thus subjective contents of the collectivity, to move from a position singular / plural individual to a discussion / conference, which shows that the rate of accurate collective memory are emblems of the identity of the artist himself. The geometry governs the composition and creation in the works of Casanova. Forms are represented in pictorial spaces, rich in shots, sequences, and contours that shape the visual materiality of the works artist, diversifying the angles of vision and contemplation of the viewer.

The lines are recurring items in the work presented; lines that expand on the various media and boundaries that are the glue and then hold each piece chromatic structure. They define, for example, the number of heads that make up the sculptures in wire and appear represented in the photographic record of them.

In the untitled series, simultaneously and reversibly, the lines are diluted in the composition by canceling the traits, its own value. They are formulated this way, hybrid relations between form and content. The surface of the screen lights up in the action comedy chromatic developments leading to a geometric representation and conceptual tone and sequences of unparalleled richness and lyrical material.

In the series Metropolis, the cartographic record is the result of the artist's daily route through the city. The lines appear here as contour and geometry of the buildings that she represents in each screen.

In some sequences, there are the outlines of buildings, spaces that compose them, but in others, the color distribution expands, so it do not let the apparent spatial resolution.

In this series, the color intensity in the composition is diluted to make the highlight color in the composition of the border, causing spatial counterpoints between the elements represented and pictorial space, with no change in their original format. This difference in tone in each piece reminds us of the subjective aspects of self and other.

The light becomes a basic element in the artist's visual language, establishing links with the contrasts in the shadows, defining connections between light and dark, and balance / imbalance mater and color. In the series of the backlight, for example, artificial light spreads and reinforces the chromaticism of artistic creation.

Flow of movement, are represented by the direction of the spatial and chromatic lines and colors marks caused by strokes of color in abstract works. A sequential movement of sliding or confrontation that takes us, a first contact, the experiences in nature and in a later reading, linked to the history of art, to the conceptual instability of the painting.

Time and space are highlighted in color representation. Thus, the artist cuts spaces defined a whole - making visible imperceptible fragments of everyday life - and develops ways to structure these parts as unique elements that materialize only in color, shape, texture.

There are in Casanova's series a visual transparency that delights us to isolating the overwhelming amount of futile and useless information that bombards us daily. The artist gives us a production full of visual lyricism and fluidity that isolates and transports us to a fertile immaterial reality of light and will to live.

Marked strokes that intersect and dilute in a chromatic seqüencial galé anda t the same time corporeal anachronic in the spatial linearity. Strong contrasts of color and design that Project and hghlight a luminous transparency and a optical relation of forms and depth that encourage the whole painting.

The spatial dynamics that work offer us is translated into the pictorial movements and the creation of plans that are dissolved and merged so that the composition contextualize and hybridize simultaneously from materiality and complex aesthetic and consistent. Counterpoints of circularity and linearity of plastic and aesthetic parameters configure and define the work of Casanova.



Andrés I. M. Hernández
Master of Visual Arts, Curator and Producer, ex-curator of Museum of Modern Art of S.Paulo


Line, synthesis of beauty and exactness

If art is the vehicle of a special sense of the world, the artist is the agent that is able to draw more so. To achieve your goal, he do not just do the work,he shall transmit it to the observer in the simplest way, clearer, more sober as possible (Karl Popper, s / d). So it seems to me, the art of Esther Casanova.

Since when she felts the impulse of creativity, self-expression, her production occurred in several ways. In this exhibition we find two of them, which was awarded the 8th. Contemporary Art Exhibition of Marilia (2009), now she has a large production in the same thread: the sculpture / object (wire work) and photo-speech (image obtained from the reworking of his original, printed on special paper) . Both series deal with the line, the final synthesis or early prime of his artistic practice. Line that guides and strengthens its links with life. Line that identifies both the shape and hides in a complex tangle of wires, turning it into another visual element - like a super-microscopic and x-ray vision of things - and the possible lessons that we can dream while trying to rebuild its path. Lines that make explicit the territory of the feelings of softness, flexibility and female.

In to do this, the use of hands, Esther has the power to release the emotion and creativity. But reason is there present, always guiding the yarn or weaving. In her we feel how much the artist is involved with her work. Action and movement, visible and hidden spaces make up the work. Conscious application of these elements, materials and techniques are the best allies for its transformation. It is the restless and inquisitive visual element that contributes to the visual and aesthetic.

The observer needs time, space, turning around to absorb the entire load and intent of the artist. At the same time it connects to reality - the end there is the representation of the human body (head and body), it moves away from Esther to create fields of tension between the full (lines) and voids (space between lines) that are or should be rebuilt, recomposed by the public. She has the ability to synthesize the beauty with accuracy, with energy.

 

Elvira Vernaschi
Member of the ABCA and AICA-Brazilian and International Association of Art Critics
August 2011


Under the kingdom of light

The light boxes designed by the artist Esther Casanova is a demonstration of how to attain the permanent research results more differentiated. In this case, creativity is in addition to develop a thought directed to the issues surrounding the visual work of art.

Painting with various materials on flat plates Styrofoam allow scanning of transparencies, which become even more relevant when a white light provides the play between light and dark and even the illusion of relief, obtained because of the power of chromaticism to conquer space.

Interestingly, the paintings come from the artist in the history from her relationship with the image. Some of her most interesting compositions take on a new dimension in Styrofoam and gain multiple views and charming. The essential point is how the nuances may get full features of mystery in the kingdom of light.

The presence of blue, purple and lilac, for example, creates an atmosphere that leads to a more accurate perception of each step for the plastic construction of a personal narrative that can have many variations, but always maintains a unit in order to be manifestations the same visual problems.

Oscar D’Ambrosio, journalist and Master of Visual Arts at the Art Institute of UNESP, part of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA-Section Brazil).