works by Télémaque during this period, in particular the most recent work in the exhibition Al l’en Guinée (2019). Although often explicit in their factual grounding, Télémaque’s complex compositions invite us to decode their many symbols, references, and connections like a puzzle. Recurring throughout the artist’s career regardless of medium or period are what he calls “objets devenus langage” (objects- become-language), elements such as the cane, the nail, and the bra—a group of signifiers that act as poetic shortcuts for certain narratives or trains of thought. Once deciphered, these motifs help anchor each work in the themes that are central to Télémaque’s practice. Evident throughout the works displayed are meditations on the artist’s life story; the histories and contemporary experiences of racism and colonialism; sexuality and desire; the presence of violence within the everyday; and contemporary politics and news media. As he says: “I drew on my life as a Haitian of mixed race to construct a double language based on both the political and social, the question of identity...racism, and sexuality.” This exhibition brings together works made from the early 1960s until the present day, highlighting the enduring themes of Télémaque’s work through his multifaceted practice, including seminal works and never-before-seen pieces from the artist’s studio. Rather than taking a chronological approach, A Hopscotch of the Mind proposes a non- linear exploration of Télémaque’s visual vocabulary, encouraging viewers to jump between media and periods, forming
their own associations between the disparate fragments of his idiosyncratic narration. The exhibition is an invitation for viewers to carve out their own pathways through the artist’s visual language, forming new associations based on their own experiences and perceptions. The exhibition design by artist Helen Marten references Télémaque’s play between graphic authority and painterly playfulness. Structured around motifs of recognizable architecture, which fragment between galleries, the viewing experience is one that moves in a process of construction and collapse. Familiar compositions—house, shed, window, tent, and cubicle—provide framing devices and contained environments, which mirror visual moments of perspective and exposure in the artist’s work. Following this sense of shifting viewpoints and narration within Télémaque’s compositions, the exhibition is composed using multiple facets and cut-away apertures, allowing works to be seen in collective and sequenced layers. Hervé Télémaque lives and works in Paris. His work has been shown in exhibitions in Europe and the US since the 1960s, and was the subject of a retrospective at the Centre Pompidou, Paris, in 2015. A Hopscotch of the Mind presented at Serpentine, London (October 7, 2021—January 30, 2022) and Aspen Art Museum (November 4, 2022—March 26, 2023) are his first institutional solo exhibitions in the UK and the US respectively. Télémaque’s works are included in numerous permanent collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris; and Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain de Saint-Étienne, Métropole.
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