Scraps of paper, cloth, string and other odds and ends are the materials of choice in artist Sylvie A. Serex-Bonnet’s current exhibit at the Community School of Music and Arts.
The exhibit, “The Art of Collage,” on display through Jan. 26 at CSMA’s Finn Center, features a series of 42 works by Serex-Bonnet. The works are selling for between $290 and $520, with all proceeds going directly to CSMA’s financial aid program for students.
The bulk of the exhibit consists of Serex-Bennet’s “Nomadisme Interieur,” a diary-themed motif giving glimpses of the artist’s interior life. Each piece features the scrawled writing of the artist, along with bits and pieces of everyday life.
In “Nomadisme Interieur, Series VI,” the collage appears as an open page of a diary or journal. The writing is in French and adorned with a variety of imagery — powerful (bold geometric shapes), humble (bits of string) and mysterious (a sparkle of glitter). A mixed palette of purple, brown and pink speaks to the artist’s emotion, and the string running throughout seems to connect words and shapes in strange new ways.
Most of these collages are only eight by eleven inches in size. Their small size forces the viewer to get in close to see the details, which heightens the feeling that this is an intimate experience, looking in on the most personal aspects of another’s life.
In describing her work, Serex-Bonnet says, “If no glance rests on personal creation, then the creation does not exist completely; it is the glance of another which makes it alive.”
Serex-Bennet, who was born in Geneva and resides in the Bay Area, holds a master’s degree in “psychopedagogy” from the University of Geneva, with a specialization in psychoanalysis for children. She has been involved both personally and professionally in helping children with difficulty, including five years in a Geneva children’s hospital, where she was responsible for psychological support for seriously ill, abused and neglected children.
Serex-Bennet said her pieces are meant to express “forgotten memories” which are “brought alive for a few moments” by the art of collage.
In a series of works called “Memoires Oubliees,” the artist presents abstract female figures which appear to be moving or dancing due to the overlaid, swirling colors and textures surrounding them. Faces that seem hidden in the depths of the work can suddenly emerge from the paintings, which are constructed of ink, acrylic and sand.
Like the “Interieur” series, “Memoires Oubliees” also conveys a strong sense of the personal, and its profusion of mixed colors and tones hints at the complex emotional life of the figures in the painting — and perhaps of the artist behind them.
Serex-Bennet said her paintings are meant to convey feelings and memories that reside deep inside of us, and must occasionally find ways to be expressed. Art, specifically collage, is the ideal means with which to let these feelings emerge, she said.
“It’s quite impossible to describe such deep and intense feeling with words,” she said.
E-mail Alexa Tondreau at atondreau@mv-voice.com
