Palimpsest

an exhibition by Davisi Boontharm 16.07 - 11.08. 2024

The opening of the exhibition "palimpsest" at small format gallery - Koloć, Bol was very well received. Despite the heat and late opening time, many locals and visitors turned up to give their appreciation and support. Thank you for everyone involved especially Mr Ivica Karninčić and Mr Stjepan Krajević from Galerija malih formata.

Here is the extract of the text from the catalogue, written by Darko Radović.

παλίμψηστος

palimpsest ... re-touching

Davisi Boontharm @ Galerija malih formata – Koloč, Bol, Croatia 16.7.-11.8.2O24. .

“Nietzsche said that ‘we have art in order not to be sunk to the depths by truth.’ 

But we must add that this does not happen unless art touches on truth.” 

Jean-Luc Nancy, The Ground of the Image

I   ON palimpsest         

etymologically, Latin palimpsestus was derived from Greek παλίμψηστος, meaning simply – "scraped again"

before paper was invented, prepared animal skin was used as a writing surface 

earlier writings would be cleaned up or rubbed off, carefully yet often with imperfect results

thus

technically, palimpsest is a modest, scraped and reused sheet

poetically, re-touched have the capacity to be(come) much more

palimpsest is a potent metaphor, which can take us . . . μετα, far beyond what one could imagine

it captures the patchy character of human memory, of history, the complexities of life, the existence itself

2   ON memory              

to make some sense of the World, ancient Greeks had to invent not one, but two deities of memory

Mnemosyne was their goddess of remembrance, the one who invented language and words

Lethe was the spirit of forgetfulness and oblivion, often associated with cold underworld river

their relationship dialecticised forgetting and remembering

not unlike yin and yang energies of the ancient East, in every palimpsest Lethe and Mnemosyne meet

one to help scraping, fading of traces away, covering them

the other makes them survive, resist, perhaps resurface, help discoveries

3    ON the artist                   

when asked about her art, Davisi Boontharm simply says “I paint what I see”

we all see differently; that is a matter of combined, rational reality of perspective and that of time, of life, of lives lived

Davisi’s life is layered, with career spreading over three continents

                  a pragmatic reality of such life has enabled her breath, provided an ability to identify what is research(able) for an academic

                  the poetics of multiple placings gave a stimulating instability to life, providing for unique depths, intuitive insights of an artist

such, rare combination of academic abilities and artistic sensibility make her creativity and rigour intertwine

palimpsest is both one of the ways, and one of the mediums in which she communicates

I have a privilege of watching while she prepares the surfaces to paint on

                                    she brings sheets of paper from elsewhere, discarded pages from old books, texts (re)written and (re)read

from places which often feel as home

                                    such, now variously (il)legible textures are the traces of cultures lived, familiar, even loved

they can trigger diverse, often intimate, even hidden memories

                  from there, Davisi’s palimpsest art emerges, her hands capturing the places in front of her eyes

                                    those cover inner layers, which pull, which inspire, which release or halt her hand (laden with desire to belong)

“Every image is in some way a ‘portrait’”, wrote Jean-Luc Nancy, “not in that it would reproduce the traits of a person, but in that it pulls and draws (. . .), in that it extracts something, an intimacy, a force.”

4      ON touching             

Bol is one of the places along Dalmatian Coast which Davisi cherishes most, simply for its brazen beauty

                  arrivals are always palimpsestic, laden with inner, lived experiences of elsewhere

so are her arrivals to Brač, enterings in Bol

                                    the blues of that sky and of that sea, the whiteness of a particular stone, those subdued, Mediterranean yet local greens

that all, inevitably, triggers memories, brings forward the layers of elsewhere in(to) the artist

Davisi tends to get back to her favourite views, sections, objects

in response to situations, in her work those sights re-emerge, over and over, anew without repetition

Delacroix knew that “in painting, a kind of mysterious bridge is built between the soul of the figures and that of the spectator”, as when Nancy talks how “a portrait touches . . . touches something that is borne to the surface from out of an intimacy”               

an intimacy of touch

repetition of intimacy

                  when eyes touch what is to be painted

                  when hands touch the parchment underlaid with half-covered, forgotten, hard to decipher, forgotten graphisms from the past

with care

with full focus,

with distinct attention to detail . . .

and then – a flight !

a line, a stroke . . . hesitation, and then more . . .

with an (in)confidence proportionate to whispers of Lethe and Mnemosyne, whom only an artist can hear

5    ON ordinary             

        Bol    an ordinary Dalmatian town – of extraordinary power

                                    uniqueness within the vernacular type, a true secret of Mediterranean urbanity (or, as far as figs and olives can reach)

the qualities that are not about size, but about cultural charge, a sense of being/belonging there, in/to that place

an air which feels (as if) time has stopped (and we thread carefully, not to awaken it)

        Bol    extraordinary – because it also, somehow, manages to stay ordinary

that mysterious “somehow” which one can feel, despite the banality of ubiquitous, base tourism

such spaces (still) live, “imbued with meaning, loved or hated but never (not yet, not fully) merely used or, even worse, consumed . . . such are the places and places and practices of everyday life, the residual, infraordinary”.

the finest nuances of place

an adorable modesty which Davisi’s eyes and hands capture with

ordinary techniques, ordinary materials, re-used sheets of paper, graphite, watercolour, gesso to communicate

the essence of Bol

here (re)touched

fondly

6    ON looking                                 

                  (to the visitors)

you are at a palimpsest exhibition now

you are in it

Galerija malih formata 

a unique concept which has become a formidable place, enables regular encounters with truly excellent art

                                    the unique limit to size stresses that modesty (of means) does not forbid the greatness (of expression)

                                    for temporary exhibitions like this, that provides perfect setting

a simple, white wall (“2.5 by something like 3 meters”, we were told)

a wall which remembers previous exhibitions is

a palimpsest in itself, a surface on which art rhythmically appears and disappears

                                    and so will “palimpsest ... re-touching”

it’s not the surfaces, but the gaps that define the contents here

                  spaces, times and meanings in-between, between what the underlays hide and the layers inspired by Bol expose

palimpsestic messages of the past (even when all but lost), of the present and future (not even hinted at, yet)

they invite you

                  your monologues, dialogues, multilogues

(hushed, of course, as proper in a gallery)

Darko Radović, Split

14 July 2024