Imagine
A story, A movie scene, A dream.
There is an aura of insouciance in Diane Bellier’s work, a force of defiance, a curious (but calm) search for languages that condense the discourse she wishes to convey. This is why she uses photography, drawing, painting and video-creation to capture the muses and demons that assist her. Typical elements of the subconscious register, such as imaginary landscapes, dreams, mysticism and becoming, reveal a contemporary artist in a soliloquy in which she allows us to participate.
In this experimental journey, full of exploration and discovery, there is a constant alternation of forces, where seemingly opposite or dichotomous pairs embrace each other in a subtle and organic way. Thus, the figurative and the abstract flirt mischievously, in a visual space where images with references drawn from reality are blurred into patches of color that build areas of contrast and abstract forms.
On the other hand, the flirtation with tradition leads him to parody «classical» works of art, in an act of combined homage and irreverence. Mimicry is relaxed and given free rein, for it is not a matter of imitation, but of (re)interpretation, (re)meaning and appropriation of a motif or referent in order to involve it in his interests of formal exploration. He returns to the great masters of art history, but not to reaffirm them with closed eyes, but to question them from a present with new orientations. Venus is (re)born in Bellier’s brush, while an amorphous Liberty guides a people lost in the shadows.
The chromaticism in the work of this artist has a seductive wildness, a stridency (Fauvist if you will) that confronts complementary colors and traps at a distance. The subjects are multiple: glances at fashion, pop culture; the intimacy of a mantra or an intertwined embrace; the immensity of nature; biblical themes like Genesis; among many others. The known references are then a pretext to capture the attention of the spectator and to conquer him by the particularity of his poetics which, even if it proposes a lot, contains a solid and unique sensitivity.
Text : Dayma Crespo Zaperta
Photo : Lou Sarda