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Exhibition
Pol Taburet: Sweets for the Sweets
02/09 - 26/11/23
Free Entrance
Wednesday to Saturday, from 1PM to 7PM
Sundays, from 12PM to 6PM

Pivô will host an unprecedented exhibition by French artist Pol Taburet starting from September 2nd. The exhibition is curated by Fernanda Brenner, artistic director of Pivô.

The exhibition bring together previously unseen works produced during a residency period at Pivô Salvador and São Paulo. In his first exhibition in Brazil, titled “Sweets for the sweets,” Pol revisits the story of Candyman, a character born from the tale written by Clive Barker in 1985.

Curatorial Text

In his work, Pol Taburet presents a mixture of references ranging from the artist’s Caribbean origins, including syncretic traditions and beliefs related to voodoo, to contemporary culture in general, and classical painting. Born in 1997, the artist quickly captured the public’s attention with his idiosyncratic painting style, developed by incorporating the use of airbrushing alongside traditional acrylic painting. The result is a unique juxtaposition of textures and finishes, featuring intricate details, “impressionistic” suggestions, and abundant symbolism.

By Fernanda Brenner

SWEETS FOR THE SWEETS 

“No sound beating ends where it began. None of the beaten end up how we began.”
― Jericho Brown, The Tradition

Pol Taburet was the first artist to work in Pivô’s new space in Salvador, where he produced some of the works for the São Paulo exhibition. In the first few weeks after his arrival, the walls of his temporary studio were covered by large, entirely black canvases. Owing to the painstaking bureaucracy of Brazilian customs, Taburet’s materials were detained for longer than expected. His connection with the northeastern city was immediate. As he soaked in a profusion of new synesthetic input and information, those massive pitch-black squares remained at a standstill, haunting him. 

I read somewhere that more humans have visited outer space than the deep sea. Until recently, scientists generally held the belief that color vision wasn’t essential in the depths of the ocean. It’s too far for sunbeams to penetrate, so there’s no light to reveal color. However, as researchers studying the evolution of color vision analyzed the genomes of some of the many mysterious species that populate the planet’s largest habitat, they were proven wrong. The silver spinyfin, for instance, has more genes for discriminating dull light than any other vertebrate on the planet. Bioluminescence is, in fact, a form of defense and a navigation tool in that inky darkness. Watching Pol’s painting process during his time in Brazil made me think of those creatures that make their own light and harbor an enduring mystery. Imagine the vibrant hues they might see and that we have no clue about. Perhaps what some call the ‘supernatural’ might just as well reside on the deepest sea floors, below the edge of darkness. 

We believe we see the world as it is. We don’t. We see the world as we need to – or as we have been programmed to – in order to make sense of our existence. Only the first few top layers of the oceans are illuminated. The “sunlight zone” extends down about two hundred meters, and the “twilight zone” extends down another seven hundred meters below that. In the “midnight zone”, the “abyssal zone”, and the “hadal zone”, there exists only darkness, and the light generated by life itself. Much like deep-sea creatures, the paintings of the French-Guadeloupian artist appear to radiate their own light and inhabit a boundless and somewhat scary place (or time?). His finely stylized scenes and calculated gore unveil another world where eerie spectral figures seem to guard a secret, and to fully grasp them, one should be able to keep it. 

Navigating through the hypnotic twists and immanent upheavals that Taburet orchestrates requires a sort of night vision; an ability to delve into the darkness until your eyes start adjusting to the lack of light and colors become as bright as they can be: a bright darkness. His work – its aesthetics, inspirations, and intentions – emerges from a syncretic and deeply personal repertoire, a non-hierarchical mix that ranges from voodoo deities and Afro-Atlantic oral history to funk and trap-hop tunes, all while nodding to Western painting traditions. 

The brand-new two and three-dimensional works grouped under the title Sweets for Sweets draw inspiration, among other things, from a famous American character: Candyman. Originated in Clive Barker’s 1985 short story, he became notorious as the protagonist in a cult horror series during the early 1990s. In the films, he is portrayed as a black man brutally murdered due to a forbidden interracial love affair in the 19th century; he returns as an urban legend, mercilessly killing anyone who summons him by uttering his name five times in front of a mirror. The hook-wielding, vengeful ghoul typically appears accompanied by a swarm of bees. He haunts the area of Cabrini-Green, an extant and problematic public housing development in Chicago, which is a typical example of urban gentrification. 

As a genre, horror is preoccupied with the unknown and the ostensibly monstrous, a fixation that manifests in visions of otherness. We tell stories and create images to understand ourselves and our context; yet, these same stories can turn humans into beasts and justify destruction, contingent upon the point of view of their creator. Those who summon Candyman must confront their own reflection before the ghoul becomes a deadly material presence fueled by fear and collective trauma. In today’s context, it is impossible to disregard the connection between the spell to summon Candyman – ‘Say His Name’ – and the demands of the Black Lives Matter movement to ‘Say Their Names’. 

By moving between Salvador and São Paulo, Taburet witnessed firsthand the stark effects of structural racism in this part of the world, where segregation underscores the urban fabric of most cities. Pol’s hybrid creatures, not unlike so many people living in dire conditions, seem to have invented their own ways to shine and thrive. In the exhibition, the bioluminescent slime with which Taburet renders his characters – employing a meticulous airbrush  technique – works both as camouflage and a war cry. A recurring figure appears in most paintings, akin to a narrator, or perhaps more aptly, a a griot or an egungun. Like the storytellers and deities of West Africa, the figure seems to be the guardian of Taburet’s personal underworld, channeling their ancestors and telling us stories. 

The black canvases, awaiting the artist’s first brushstrokes, were unaware that they would soon convey an imaginary depiction of an underworld and its occult, mysterious articulations. Like an AI submarine going into the Mariana Trench or a spirit possession within a Voodoo ritual, Pol Taburet’s work opens a middle passage into a multitude of situations animated by the ecstasies of chromatic saturation and ethereal formations. While discussing the book One Black Sentence by fellow artist-writer Renee Gladman, Fred Moten asks, “But does the figure/ground thing work if the ground is black? The blackground: that nonrepresentational capacity that lets all representation take place”. This remark also seems to aptly describe Pol Taburet’s exhibition. He seems to have turned the whole room into a blackground, where you are almost immediately beaten in a rap battle you never knew you had entered. You can never fully grasp its pace, and, at the same time, you can’t get enough of it. Sweets for the Sweet is compelled to restore some style in a broken world. It reveals a realm of spirits to those willing to dance along and, most importantly, to those who know how to keep a secret. 

Artist
Pol Taburet

Pol Taburet’s (Paris, France, 1997) work is a heady and iconoclastic mix of references that range from the artist’s own Caribbean background, the region’s synchretic voodoo traditions and belief systems, wider contemporary culture, as well as classical painting. Born in 1997, the artist has rapidly gained attention with his idiosyncratic painterly style, which he has developed by incorporating the use of airbrushing alongside traditional brush painting with acrylic colors. The formal result is a unique contraposition of textures and finishings, of painstaking detail, “impressionistic” suggestion and symbolism.

 

Pol Taburet’s work has been included in institutional group exhibitions such as Des Corps Libres – Une jeune scène française, Reiffers Art Initiatives, Paris (2022); Worst Case Scenario, curated by Chloé Bonnie Moore, Paris (2021); Drawing a Blank, curated par Ben Broom, Paris (2021); Let us in III, Clichy (2019); and Let us in I, Clichy (2018). His work is also included in public collections Pinault Collection, Paris and Lafayette Anticipations, Paris.

 

Pivô will host an unprecedented exhibition by French artist Pol Taburet starting from September 2nd. The exhibition is curated by Fernanda Brenner, artistic director of Pivô.

The exhibition will bring together previously unseen works produced during a residency period at Pivô Salvador and São Paulo. In his first exhibition in Brazil, titled “Sweets for the sweets,” Pol revisits the story of Candyman, a character born from the tale written by Clive Barker in 1985.

In the storyline, Candyman was Daniel Robitaille, one of the many enslaved individuals working on a plantation in New Orleans. Daniel becomes involved with the daughter of the landowners and is killed under torture. Candyman returns from the realm of the dead and begins to haunt those who call his name. The story enters the cinematic imagination, and Candyman becomes associated with the social injustices suffered by racialized populations and the exclusive contemporary processes of gentrification.

By moving between Salvador and São Paulo, Taburet approaches the processes of inequality and social (and racial) segregation that constitute the landscapes of both cities, directly referencing Candyman in large-scale paintings and sculptures. The syncretism and Afro-diasporic cultural elements discovered by the artist are incorporated into his compositions. Taburet states that the subjects that inhabit his works have a connection with life and death, and with the transition from one state to another. His paintings possess a spiritual quality that is difficult to define, as it’s not always immediately apparent.
In his work, Pol Taburet presents a mixture of references ranging from the artist’s Caribbean origins, including syncretic traditions and beliefs related to voodoo, to contemporary culture in general, and classical painting. Born in 1997, the artist quickly captured the public’s attention with his idiosyncratic painting style, developed by incorporating the use of airbrushing alongside traditional acrylic painting. The result is a unique juxtaposition of textures and finishes, featuring intricate details, “impressionistic” suggestions, and abundant symbolism.

The dual technique, a combination of old and new, can be understood as symbolic throughout Taburet’s work. The intensity of his themes is grounded in influences clearly belonging to the traditional canon of art history. From Francis Bacon to the Baroque and sacred art, these influences are visible without overpowering the work. As an instinctive artist, Taburet’s themes, forms, compositions, and even meanings are generally revealed to the artist as he paints.

“Sweets for the Sweets”
Pol Taburet
Curated by Fernanda Brenner

Opening
Saturday | September 2nd, 2023
From 1PM to 7PM

Free Admission

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