Adeline de Monseignat: Home at Ronchini Gallery

The drawings and sculptural realisations of Adeline de Monseignat’s Home are presented at Ronchini Gallery this month. Curator Samia Calbayrac has directed the modest space of the venue cleverly to complement a handful of works by the Dutch-Monegasque artist. Series of framed drawings and collages occupy the wall space: on the right there are bold blocks of black ink, punctuated by sparsely thatched holes redolent of those you might find in worn fabric. A theme of cloth runs through the body of work, a softly luminous box supporting a hand-stitched ideas map of the concerns of de Monseignat’s practice on stretched pale linen.

Naturally suggestive of the domestic nostalgia with which de Monseignat’s current work is concerned, delicate monochromatic fragments of striped awning dominate the installation. Shrouded in red and white striped canvas, from the artist’s family home, entering the small enclosure is an intriguing visual and physical experience. Stacked slats of metal interrupted with thin mirror panels and canvas covered blocks surround the sculpture on three sides; distorting and confusing to the eye. The central conglomeration of shiny marble spheres, tucked up on a kind of low mattress, are as much reminiscent of precious eggs being swaddled as an outer-space landscape of raised extra-terrestrial bumps. The combination of the cold, hard artifice of marble and the suppleness of sheet-like textiles are a kind of tactile bait.

With the standard no touching rule in place, the only opportunity for contact is to sit upon a spongy square seat facing into the U-shaped surround to simply be with the marble forms. The backdrop of the striped awning gives it a palpable feeling of innocent mystery and the sweet exclusivity of a children’s home-constructed fort. With the added exoticism of marble with house-found fabric, de Monseignat has built a tiny arena for magic and imagination.

de Monseignat’s use of mirrors in both the installation and the series of fabric and mirror linear collages reference light as well as reflection. It’s a seductive material; the stark contrast in texture, to the softness of fabric and the marble, is unadulterated. The fluidity of the works, changing and reflecting the viewer and surroundings gives them life and dynamism. Simple and quiet incidents of beauty, Adeleine de Monseignat’s work has fragility as well as punch.

Lauren Pennycott
Photos: Rosie Yang

Home is at Ronchini Gallery until 17^th January 2015, for further information visit here.