DRAWING 2014
Photo
In the Madoura pottery, a piece of furniture where drawings are stored caught Paolo Topy ’s attention, particularly the habitual gestures associated with it: the gradual opening and closing of the drawers and the ensuing discovery of the contents therein. This gesture must have been repeated daily when the pottery was in operation. A gesture that we no longer pay any attention to after a while, but that beyond necessity, houses a simple pleasure – that ofdiscovery.
Using a clump of different coloured, tangled threads that he found on the pottery floor, he composed a first series of pictures, referring to artistic practices, and in particular, to drawing, that he considered the most emblematic.
This choice symbolises relationships to time, as drawing is often a daily activity for an artist. It is also a desire on his part to convey the idea of a certain humility. Drawing is done with a simple sheet of paper and a pencil.
However, these threads also convey a whole world of laborious domestic activity, as useful as it is discrete. A world of women, mothers and wives, who in an attempt to save money, have been repairing the clothes of all the family for years, particularly in poorer circles.
These women are the same as those seen on the postcards showing the workers of the Vallauris potteries. This activity, these gestures, the attention they draw and the intention they convey provide Paolo Topy with subject matter that is highly charged in emotion.
Placed randomly on a piece of paper, these threads appear as a coherent body with two separate ensembles quickly becoming apparent. Some more ‘graphic’ compositions recall the drawing artist‘s gestures, others conjure a ball of thread found on the ground, thread used by a seamstress.
This collection of photographs, printed on paper resembling ‘drawing paper” are presented in that piece of furniture with numerous drawers. A visitor to the exhibition will be invited to explore it and experience the joy of discovering them, opening and closing all the drawers one after the other, repeating the same gesture that was carried out over the years and he himself participating in the everyday life of the Madoura pottery.
Yves Peltier