Recently I’ve been enjoying the survey of Italian Art in the Twentieth Century, edited by Emily Braun. In it I came across a remarkable phrase from the Tuscan painter Sandro Chia. He speaks of his studio as “the stomach of the whale”, in which “my paintings and my sculptures appear …. like the undigested residues of a former repast.” It’s a pretty revolting metaphor, but I do believe that I know what he might be getting at.
People often speak about artistic work as if it resembles some kind of original action of divine creativity, ex nihilo. There is a kind of mystique that attaches to the creative act, as a result of which work appears as a consequence of the essential originality of the artist. I much prefer an idea that was developed by the French anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss, who compared the story-teller relating myth to the activity of bricolage. In other words, it is very much like DIY, where the artist goes into his metaphorical shed and finds all kinds of bits and pieces left over from previous tasks. They will enable the reciter of myth to “make do”. The remains of an old cupboard will serve perfectly well as the material from which to fashion a book-shelf.
I think that Chia is possibly getting at the same idea. Hidden in the “stomach of the whale” that is the studio, he is surrounded by all kinds of bric-a-brac, consisting of the debris of former projects and the never-yet-developed anticipation of possible schemes. These left-overs and undigested fragments are not just “residues”, but elements rich with possibility from which something new may yet be fashioned.
I’m starting on what might turn out to be a new project at the present time, but the raw material from which I hope that something will emerge is a heap of fragments derived from English folk traditions. Into this I am mixing elements of iconography, bits of calligraphy, and features dictated by the medium in which I have chosen to work. When this odd mixture is finally coughed up onto the sand, I hope that, rather like Jonah emerging from the belly of the whale, it will be ready to speak.