THE HYPER-RUNT AND RED FARMS
Caterina Verde's split photographs
of animals and communications apparatus are very strange
things. Their quirky simplicity butts heads against an
onrush of dissonance. Charm, dread and infinite possibilty
jumble together. I grab for the nearest lollipop and
suck like a baby, staring, bewildered, itchy.
So it is somewhat of a relief that Caterina has recently
located a childhood scrapbook which helps to provide
some keys to her coy imagery. The Red Farms Christmas
Catalogue is bursting with French and North American
iconography, bits and pieces of which have worked their
way into Caterina's artwork. It's so congested with material,
it seems to exude the qualities of a Pandora's Box --which
is precisely what makes the thing a Hyper-Runt.
It is a monstrous seed humming with life, packed with
the pop DNA of two distinctly different cultures.
Many of us today feel so tied up with our computers that
when they are in the shop our nervous systems seem a
bit depleted. It's as if a critical source of data, not
to mention a habitual mouthpiece, has been surgically
removed. So I can fully understand Caterina's cyborg-like
sense of biological connection with her Red Farms Christmas
Catalogue. I especially appreciate how it reunites her
with her childhood being --a psychological Hyper-Runt of
the highest order.
--Ebon Fisher |
The runt was in the garage, yellowing and frail.
Christ on the cross, Brigitte Bardot, the Monkees, babies,
beds, Sonny and Cher, a star that had been drawn over and
over again, an abandoned farm house, colonial fixtures, the
Kennedys, french pop stars, Antoine, Francoise Hardy, Jacques
Dutronc, Asterix and Obelisk, cartoons from ParisMatch...they
were all there, clinging to the yellowing cardboard. And
yet they had made it despite the cold winters and the moisture.
They were survivors.
Looking through the red farms christmas card
catalogue and scrap book, the images that were chosen were
enigmatic to me--even though I was the chooser of pics. On
a second view, I saw my drawing of christ on the cross and
saw the relationship to my black and white goat piece. The
goat had become the symbol of the devil to christians---the
great Pan---god of the outer realms--all that represented
the pagan life and from his head emerged the cross---an electrical
pole--communicating--transmitting energy information to the
world.....the cross was alive........against the melancholy
of a simple goat whose eyes pointed in opposite directions.
The red farms christmas card catalogue and
scrap book contained a small drawn series about beds and
antiques. Had this runt been standing by my side waiting
its turn to reappear in my personal lexicon of imagery as
I went on my oftentimes stumbling way through life? The beds
of my later series of the dormitory in a small school in
Paris, empty, holding the potential image of someone asleep........reached
back to drag me forward.
The red farms christmas card catalogue and
scrap book, re-entered the world of the ---current and dated.....who
is it that built this iconography in my 8 year old mind......transformers
of scenes glued one on top of the other.. There is more.......
-- Caterina Verde
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