A regular participant to the Sursock Museum exhibits and the winner of several awards, Flavia Codsi has by now become a familiar figure of the Lebanese art scene. This recognition encouraged her to dedicate all of her time to painting a couple of years ago, and for another two weeks we can savour the result of her new freedom in her exhibit, Phases, at the Espace SD. A dark-haired woman of Italian descent, as discreet as her paintings are striking, Codsi explains the choice of this title: "I spent 8 months working on this exhibit, during which I went through many different phases, many states of mind, and the canvasses changed along with my emotions."
The resulting ensemble, composed of several little groups, offers a fascinating progression in subjects and moods. We find for instance numerous bananas individually framed in similar compositions where the frame also forms a sort of pedestal. The earliest are in startlingly bright colours completed by whimsical names such as Bonita or Chiquita; then the palette grows duller and more earthy. "It was banana season in the supermarkets," Codsi smiles. "I got inspired by the bright colours they had while they were still fresh." Daily events are a source of inspiration for many of the works, but it's not until we were told the story of "The Dogfather", representing a stately great Dane, and "Insomnia", with a man and woman desperately attempting to sleep, that we realized that the former's nightly activities was the cause of the latter in Codsi's household. "That was the first time I painted animals, by the way", she adds, "and it's afterwards that I let myself go into still life. All this is very recent for me."
A touch of humor is present in the most unexpected places, in complete contrast with the highly realistic and generally very serious style that characterizes Codsi's work. "As a general rule the title comes after I've done the work, so they're often picked to break the seriousness of the image a bit." Thus we find a representation of an exhausted-looking woman sitting on the floor with a fly swatter in her hand, titled "No Fly Zone". But titles are not necessarily humoristic: often enough they illuminate the concept behind one or a series of pictures. As we move deeper into the gallery we note for instance a series of 3 paintings representing characters curled up against a strong gale. Two of them have their backs to it and are titled "Contre vent", "Against the wind". The third one faces them and seems to turn natural laws upside-down as her hair flows against the wind: by a phonetic pun she is titled "Contrevenant", which can be translated as "Outlaw, counter-stream".
Viewers familiar with Codsi's earlier works may wonder why she no longer signs them. It turns out she feels it is not part of the painting. "Whenever I painted something in trompe-l'Ïil, the signature spoiled the whole effect. So I decided to sign on the back instead." Not that there is any chance of her canvasses being mistaken for anyone else's: her figurative style is her very own. The human bodies she creates are very nearly photographic, but not so much that every part of the face and body carries the same power of expression (or lack thereof): some details are subtly more realistic than others, so that their expressive value is emphasized. The backgrounds are as simple as possible, often simple areas of colour that leave the whole attention to the characters. The result is a style so intense it burns itself into the observer's mind.
This style, Codsi has never felt the need to compromise it to suit an audience's taste. "I paint for myself," she says, "and it's a blessing to be able to do this and at the same time be appreciated by the public." So it isn't particularly hard to be an artist in Lebanon? Her answer is both a comfort and a disillusion: "It's hard to be an artist anywhere in the world. Some artists do better than others, but you can't expect a better situation elsewhere." In her experience, there is a minority in Lebanon that shows real appreciation for art in general. "The reason the rest don't is not lack of interest on their part, it's simply that they haven't been exposed to art or educated in that sense." She reflects the wishes of many when she stresses the importance of having a museum of contemporary art in Lebanon, where students could be taken the way they are everywhere else in the world, and that someone should take care of such a project very soon.
Flavia Codsi is exhibiting at the Espace SD from September 26 till October 18. Tel: 01 563114.
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Article by Joumana Medlej |