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Sabine Cibert ● Contemporary Textile Art

Focus on Reminiscences

…Reminiscences that seems to blend with its supporting wall, reinforcing the notion of a palimpsest. Besides the reference to Kandinsky, the notion of Reminiscence projects one infinity, as the black and white checkerboard constantly rephrases the question of origin. These impressions are maintained by the “inside out working process, using an assemblage technique called kuna mola or reverse appliqué: a method of sculpting with fabric traditionally used by native American women inspired by the ornamental geometric designs painted onto their bare chests.
Like the other pieces in Espace-temps, Reminiscences suggests a marvelous definition of the creative act: first, to introduce a relationship with other worlds, languages, and techniques before turning away from the creation. Then, the artist’s task is to preserve the dual principle of harmony and phrasing in the finished piece, which may become an esthetic path to the sacred or at least to the sublime.

Focus sur Transition

The world imagined by the artist is grounded in Transition, one of her most significant pieces. Even the empty space between the panels of this triptych contributes to the work: lines that seem to spring from one shore to the other, so to speak, and simulate, in shades ranging from blue to brown via beige, different states of matter — dry or wet, sandy or compact, its depth and surface.
Starting from the left panel, tiny waves begin at the far edge, moving from an unseen origin and elevating the invisible to the visible. By contrast, no line on the right panel touches the opposite edge. But something is going on, a ribbon of fabric, a stem, a vibration, whatever it may be! Like radio waves, these frequencies move anyone who is willing to accept the unexpected. These “listeners” see and hear this new “Ragtime,” a musical style and the eponymous title of a painting by Theo van Doesburg that has inspired Sabine Cibert. But she interprets it quite freely in her own style by collecting and assembling her own fantastic “bits’ of notation.

Chantal Danjou

Poet, novelist, essayist
January 2017

Focus on Moments