Women, Michel Soucy
keeps an eye on them
In his show of Spring 2005, Entité,
Soucy brought us fiery portraits
and disturbing faces
with true-life expressions.
This time, he is back with a series devoted to women
that explores what lies beneath appearances.
Discovering these unknown women for the first time,
we get a strong impression of solitude
– a theme close to Soucy’s heart, and one which takes
on particular significance in the context of Soucy’s childhood
in remote and icy Labrador. He was born in the mining town of Schefferville,
in the middle of nowhere, in 1963 and his background is often present
in his work.
A plastic artist and scenographer, Soucy graduated
from Central St Martins College of Art and Design before moving
to Brussels about five years ago. In this time, he has developed
storyboards and movie sets and has pursued his research into synthetic
pictures, but portraits have remained central in his artistic output.
“There is poetry in horror,” Soucy has
written, and standing in front of some of these portraits,
I was reminded of the work of Arnulf Rainer and Francis Bacon, but
there is more tenderness here.
Soucy’s women are alone or left behind, but they hang onto
their dreams
and the memories
of past kindnesses which protect them from a threatening oblivion.
Behind the hard and nervous paint work, the choice of colours reveals
the presence of hope.
Anita NARDON
Socles & Cimaises
