michel demanche at ch'i: an art space

alchemy: 1. a medieval chemical science and speculative philosophy aiming to achieve the transmutation of the base metals into gold, the discovery of a universal cure for disease, and the discover of a means of indefinitely prolonging life; 2. a power or process of transforming something common into something special; 3. an inexplicable or mysterious transmuting

Just like the alchemists at work in their dark, dank castle dungeons during the Dark Ages, Michel Demanche works with the four elements – air, water, earth, and fire – in her current show “Alchemy & The Elements” at Ch’i: An Art Space.

The centerpiece of the show is the three separate yet joined paintings of the goddesses of air (“Hecates”), water (“Miletus”), and fire (“Brigid”). They are ethereal, diluted, obscured, and incredibly powerful. The goddesses as elements are bare and exposed in the paintings, with swirling mists or water or fire surrounding their bodies. They are more figures to make out than concrete beings.

Stretched across the bottom of the three paintings is a long tangled mess of willow branches: stripped of most of its bark in front of the Air Goddess; tainted blue in front of the Water Goddess; and burnt black and charred in front of the Fire Goddess.

The series looks sharply at the male/female counterbalance that Demanche says has been part of her work since 1977. I see the goddesses as metaphors for the fluid and changing identities women take on daily to survive, moving from light and airy to secluded and calm to hot and passionate. And across these images the wood: the male symbol, never changing, hard, and the only differences (stripped, blue, burnt) an effect by the women.

The other paintings in the show spring from her interpretation of earth and what she pictures as its energy. “Earth” consists of various hues of brown, swirling like a duststorm caught on paper, an image of earth running into itself and mixing and collaborating within itself.

Off of this element painting are three others: the effect of earth mixing with forces of nature. “Metal” is composed of greens, not the usual color people think of for metal, but it works as veins of ore exposed. Red claw marks across the left center create an opposing harshness, life, and an awakening of the metal. “Dry” is the effect of wind mixed with earth, a light coffee with milk color, again representing combination. “Wet” (earth and water) is the final offshoot, a rich black swirling cacophony with the surprise addition of a ghostly cube with DNA growing (or disappearing) within it.

Rounding off this exhibit is her “Book of Alchemy.” It is presented in a handmade book box whose cover retains body warmth that touches it to create a ghost impression for a few seconds. Consisting of 13 prints, the book challenges our notion of what can be mixed together, and provides a commentary on our culture and society that has absorbed so many disparate influences up through the present. The prints incorporate photos, paintings, drawings, star charts, birth charts, 1950’s school primer text and images, old science, new science, nature, and male and female imagery. These elements are layered upon each other in each print, creating conflicting and yet symbiotic collages.

Demanche uses this show as a reclamation of her world, and as an extension, ours as well. As she puts it: “They are transformation of basic substances into new forms of existence. They embrace the spirit that perhaps can be released from their physical form.”

“I work within some very universal symbols found through investigation of Neolithic art, hobo language, children’s fantasy language (pre-cognitive words and sounds), etc. I find my response to my own childhood provides me with a wealth of personal symbols and yet on another level universal symbols to modify the inherent duality of things.

Seemingly opposite references often associate to create a new meaning in my work. I respond to things and make associations, do the work in my brain, and then as Mozart said, I just scribble and bibble it all down. I really don't do any sketches. I go out and capture what I need - either as a photographer or just an observer - remember it, put it together, let it cook in my mind for a while, and then manifest it visually. If that is alchemy I don't know what is.”

“Alchemy & The Elements” runs through November 15 at Ch’i: An Art Space.