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Artist Cleopas' work casts a magical mystical spell The Mounton Noir Gallery on Burnaby Street, has mounted its first "show", having previously represented a number of mainly Canadian artists. For this first show the gallery has chosen an artist whose work is quite sufficiently dramatic and different to command wide attention. Emilia Cleopas, recently married to a Bermudian and thus now a "local" artist, is nevertheless new to Bermuda both personally and artistically and local buyers of art are in for quite a surprise; her work is extremely individual and unusual. The overall impression on entering the gallery is of figures of almost religious intensity. They borrow in style from both Byzantine and the related Coptic religious traditions if icon painting. Each painting is designed around a complex story, as with The Elders, where Susannah, the only conventional figure in the show, is portrayed as a small schoolgirl in her Sunday best. She is encased among a group of towering, masked figures of frightening mien. You may make of it what you will. Every work has its story, often complex, sometimes mystifying. Interpretations are frequently secular, despite the overall impression of religiousity. Doves of peace are frequent motifs, as are chalices and candles; the primal mother or earth goddess is regularly suggested. Among the formalism generally identifying the underlying motif of the show there are two or three works that provide a contrasting directness. Feathers on the Mount, which may have a voodoo significance which escaped me, is made up of a compositionally satisfying swirl of chickens among which one is eating, another defecating. Good Friday, a work dominated by huge Easter Lillies contains a tiny kite flying on a long string threaded through the lillies and ending on an untended spool lying among coloured eggs. It is a powerful work and carries a variety of possible interpretations, sacred and profane. The serene head enmeshed in the swirling representations of wind and waves in Tempest is as enigmatic in its way as the Mona Lisa and is one of the most compelling, if hard to comprehend, of the less Nyzantine works. The disturbing factor is the serentity within the malestrom, wherein, too, lies the meaning. To put my finger on the work which seemed to me to sum up the inner driving force of the artist I selected Evening Star of Nebadon. An earth goddess figure, in concept immensely older than the art of Christianity, holds a fish resembling a two ended cornucopia from the mouth of which emanated all the waters of the earth and from the tail all the stars of the heavens. That is a simplified description but represented for me the nearest thing to the fundamental emotion behind the complex intricacies of this very fascinating show. Most of the work is far more complex in its symbolism. Interpretation is a major challenge. This art is intense, mystical and demanding - and not for the faint-hearted. |
