Claudia Meyer

SENSORIA by Claudia Meyer by Cynthia Penna Art Curator, 1307 Art Foundation, Italia.

Entering a space in which works by Claudia Meyer are installed may become a complex and rich sensorial experience. One is immediately “enveloped” in an almost metaphysical aura and by a flow of energy in movement. The impact is quite surprising. It is, above all, a matter of a “instinctive attraction” towards and within these signs that appear to evoke communication, or rather an archaic and unknown language. The sign appears as a tangle of words, of lines, of waves that must be captured and grabbed. Like the pictorial signs of primitive populations, like the “lines” of Nazca in Perù, and like the signs of the Aborigines in Australia, the one of Claudia Meyer reminds an archaic form of communication.

A continuous evolution of signs where the lines, the drawings follow one another, to be moved, confused and mixed with one another in an illusory and unreal desire for communication. It is a matter of harmonic and dynamic handwriting, a new alphabet of the soul that bursts forth with a continuous flow of words that reminds us of music. A surge of pure energy, accentuated by the use of light which illuminates only some sections of the scene, condensing it and making the eye perceive only certain pivotal points.

Light is essential to the artist, as a conceptual element of the epiphany of a discovery. Light as immediate access to thought: light as transmission of thought. Or light as a direct approach to the flow of energy in movement that emerges from the support, striking the observer and hypnotizing him or her, carrying him or her away by that very same energy. The whole composition of the work consists of an alternation of bright spaces and dark ones, or perhaps we should rather say “obscure” spaces; not unlike the rhythm of life, where we also experience a continuous duality between pleasure and pain, mystery and reality.

If we observe the space of Meyer’s paintings closely, it is often divided into compartments or organized in a grid, so as to form a geometric graphic composition that incorporates the whole “narrative”. This construction seems to reflect a need, for the artist, to deliberately integrate the constructivist experience, which is closely linked to the artist’s Swiss origin. The rigor of a certain Middle European approach makes her create a kind of “system” of successive squares which become the structural basis of the work. In her recent works Meyer has shifted from a horizontal/square arrangement to a more circular scenic one. It is almost as if the fact that the artist has discovered the circular form suggests that research has come full circle, that she has reached the end of a very long trajectory.

The graphic sign that the artist has chosen as her distinctive trait and means of expression has evolved; it no longer and not only takes the form of linear traces against a background, but tends towards a circular form which continues into, and perhaps resolves itself in, a spiralling formation projected towards the conclusion of a trajectory. The circularity of the form indicates the accomplishment of the artist’s research and at the same time to the finiteness of natural elements: cells, nuclear bodies, fulcrums, elements that contain a beginning and an end within them. A central nucleus catches the eye, making the gaze converge towards a focal point that also captures and attracts thought. It is a matter of a centripetal force that guides the eye towards the nodal point of a trajectory and of thought: in a nutshell, the meaning of the work as absoluteness of the work itself: sum of significance and signifier; union of form and content, merger of the communicator and the communicated. A spiral is a labyrinth that leads to a central nucleus, which is the quintessence of the concept expressed by the artist: pure emotion, in its own right, which becomes a work of art.

And so Claudia Meyer’s work is all this: energy that bursts forth, flows of energy in movement that interact with one another, forms that allude to unknown beings recoverable in Nature; a graphic sign that, in its turn, follows the energy that animates it, powers it and makes it fly.

By Yves Zoberman from Baku’s Cultural Envoy, French Consulate

While metaphysics teaches us to believe in existence and nothingness, Claudia Meyer’s art shows us matter and light. The essence of the artist’s creations therefore consists of flows and energy. In order to unite the latter, her creative inspiration draws upon all materials, including those produced by nature, and those invented by man. This expresses a great sense of freedom. The artwork guides and enables us to exist with the artist. The generous strokes and expressive lines show us that the material is full of this luminous and translucent vacuum. Movement emerges from the immobile forms. These spirals, these characters that resemble writing are imperceptible yet powerfully suggestive. They remind us of ancient manuscripts. Immanent and material, Claudia’s creations point to the transcendent. This transcendence that is so close to us is one of emotion and sensitivity. At the heart of the temporal, her art confronts us with the universe and puts man back into a living world. It lights up the material as if to say that what is real is our language and that the artist is there to help us see it. It speaks to us of air, water and fire. In this sense, art is an opening, a mirror or a dialogue, which is accessible for everyone.