Site de/of Martine Quentric-Séguy

THE HINDU, April 5, 2006 (© text and photograph)

ART The works of Chantal GOWA and Martine Quentric-Seguy are influenced by Indian philosophy

A large box covered on all the four sides by a collage welcomes the viewers as they enter the Lalit Kala Akademi galleries. It has been created by two artists - Chantal Gowa and Martine Quentric-Seguy of France. But they did not work on it simultaneously, nor did they discuss what they wanted to do. Says Martine, "I would paste a piece of paper and Chantal would receive it as a message and paste her piece; and then I would receive it; that is how the whole collage evolved over a year." Going around the box one can feel the continuous process of creation by the two women, one responding to the other's emotions. Filled with cuttings of pastel coloured magazine pages, it is evocative of human sensibilities. Inaugurating the show, Maud Girard-Geslan, a scholar of Asian arts, referred to this collage "Who am I? Who are we?" as a masterpiece.

Their fathers were also artists. The two grew up in an artistic environment and later underwent formal training. Having lived in Pondicherry, Chantal and Martine have been exposed to Indian philosophy and influenced by the Mother's teachings. "I've visited India several times and deeply interested in Indian philosophy," says Martine. They seem to prefer mild and subtle tones in their paintings and collages. Though in a few paintings Chantal has used bright hues and gold leaf. Martine has worked on all mediums, but of late it has been collage. "I don't deliberately think of subjects. Anytime a certain emotion hits me and I want to express it through a work of art, the medium also seems to suggest itself," she says. Many of her works have been influenced by Indian spirituality such as "Aum Ganesha", "Upanishad" and "Three Buddhas". In her collages, Martine has also dealt with contemporary issues - "Crucified everyday" is on women's problems and has a lot of newspaper captions on the topic, pasted in a manner to suggest the dangers which they face everyday; the black printed words aptly convey anger and frustration. "In the rays of violence" on the spreading violence has been put together with faces of men, women and children cut from magazines; the fear written clearly on the faces, some appear to be peeping from behind another head or a wall. She uses scripts of various languages freely in her creations.

Portraits of each other

Martine and Chantal have done a few portraits of each other. The former has done one of Chantal simply by writing the message of the Mother in a linear manner. Chantal has done a painting and a charcoal drawing of Martine. Her portrait of the Mother as a young woman titled "A woman for always, a woman forever" has a mystic quality; the face appears as seen through a translucent screen or a moving cloud. The outer line of the lightly drawn, rather vaguely seen, face of the woman in "Feminite despierres" comes down slowly and ends in a coil; the light blue and grey surface with the lines in pencil, ink and acrylic create a sense of mystery; the coil, which appears to be unwinding is in gold; the imagery is suggestive of the blossoming of femininity from the womb.

Heinrich K. Weihrauch provided piano interlude during the inaugural function. There was always music when the two women painted, which helped in mitigating the tension of creating. The show has been organised by Aurodhan Art Gallery, Pondicherry with the support of Alliance Francaise de Madras and under the patronage of H.E. Dominique Girard, French Ambassador in India and is on till April 7 (11 a.m. to 7 p.m.).

LAKSHMI VENKATRAMAN

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