Bonne lecture à tous !
Poetics, Paraphernalia and
Paint: The Artworks of John Hathorn
by Reggie Michael Rodrigue
“All
the soarings of my mind begin in my blood.”
Rainer Maria Rilke
“One
should always be drunk. That’s all that matters…But with what? With wine, with
poetry, or with virtue, as you choose. But get drunk.”
Charles Baudelaire
John Hathorn, “A Note on Red,”
oil on canvas, glass, oil, pigment, metal, string, 2000, collection of Lucy
Leslie, photograph courtesy of the author
Near the entrance to “John Hathorn – A Retrospective”
at the Acadiana Center for the Arts, there is a small, rather unassuming
painting on the title wall of the exhibition. It is a vertically oriented,
rectangular canvas which has been treated with a thin, umber, oil paint wash
and slathered with a thick impasto of red oil paint which virtually obliterates
the support surface. The red paint was probably built up with the help of a
palette knife over the course of several days or weeks or months … maybe even
years? The skin of the painting is as
luscious and dense as cake frosting, but looking at it feels more like looking
a slab of bloody meat. An old specimen vile containing powdered, red pigment
hangs from the bottom of the canvas, calling extra attention to the
not-so-secret ingredient that makes this painting hit one square between the
eyes. One’s pulse quickens. One’s mouth moistens. Desire takes hold, and the
color red is in the driver’s seat.
. . . . . . .
Speaking of journeys, it is somewhat easy to
fantasize about taking one on Hathorn’s sublime “Raft.” The sculpture is a
wooden platform covered with rugs, paintings, drawings, personal notes and
other objects which hovers inches above the floor of the gallery and is
suspended from the ceiling via a sturdy rope. The other end of the rope is
wrapped and tied around a wooden palette topped by stone slabs and salt blocks
on the other side of the gallery. The piece dominates the entrance to the
exhibition.
Hathorn’s “Raft” looks like a cross between a raft, a
magic carpet, a cabinet of curiosities, a studio, a DaVinci-esque science
project and a construction site – all things which speak to exoticism, travel,
transformation from one state to another, and/or a belief in or a hope for a
better future. It is a highly personal,
artistic gesture in that Hathorn used lumber left over from the construction of
the studio he shares with his wife, artist Mary Ellen Leger, to make the piece.
Add to that the personal ephemera and paraphernalia from Hathorn’s own practice
in the completed studio, and one has access to a slice of the artist’s life,
work and process combined.
Yet, Hathorn’s aspirations for the piece go beyond the
personal and move toward the universal and the Romantic. One of the
inspirations for the piece is Theodore Gericault’s masterpiece “The Raft of the
Medusa,” a 19th century painting depicting the aftermath of the shipwreck of a
French frigate off the coast of Senegal in 1816. Another inspiration for “Raft”
is William Shakespeare’s play “The Tempest,” which unfolds around the central
character of Prospero, a deposed duke and a magus who is trapped on a deserted
island. In the play, Prospero plots to regain his title by unleashing a storm
on his enemies while they are at sea which causes their ship to wreck, forcing
them onto the shores of Prospero’s island where he reigns supreme. Between these allusions and the physical
manifestation of “Raft” itself, one is set adrift to peruse the individual
materials that together compose the work and ponder what it means to seek and
find refuge in uncertain times. In Hathorn’s case, text, image and personal
effects fuse to create a secure and fertile ground upon which his life and
creative spirit thrive.
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