COSMOS

“The home is our corner of the world. It is our first universe and a true cosmos"

Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of Space. 

This quotation is the starting point for Claire Fahys’ reflections. In her painting, she explores a sacred universe where every space, whether interior or exterior, becomes a place of spiritual quest and introspection. The exhibition navigates two parallel, deeply intertwined worlds: natural landscapes carrying ancestral secrets and personal memories on the one hand; and on the other, portraits in Parisian interiors warm with mystery.  

Following in Bachelard’s footsteps, Fahys explores the elements of nature and the spaces of everyday life as loci of poetic reverie. Seemingly banal, it is precisely because domestic spaces are familiar to us that they become the focus of introspection, imaginary unfolding and transformation. Poetic reverie is not a state of escape, but an original mode of knowing, a way of going beyond reason to apprehend the essence of things. The portraits of the artist’s close friends embody a dialogue between the world of the senses and that of the mind; they confront us with a profoundly introspective vision of the world. Subdued light sources imbue the scenes with an almost mystical atmosphere: a woman absorbed in reading, a neighbour with his back to his home, or a moment of serenity shared with a pet. 

In Symbolist painting, nature - and the forest in particular - reflects the hidden depths of the human soul. They embody our inner selves. The autobiographical plays an important role in Fahys’ work. ‘From the woods‘, for example, was inspired by a family home on a hill in the middle of a forest. It’s a place with which she has an intimate connection, and to which she feels truly anchored. This sense of rootedness, memory and family, radiates from the painting. This is a landscape where the boundary between reality and reverie is blurred, becoming a terrain for sensory investigation. Fahys also borrows from the world of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, whose ‘Reveries of the Solitary Walker‘ has had a profound impact on her work over the years. 

Claire Fahys produces large-format, immersive frescoes: this is how she conceives the language of her medium. Not only does this create a contrast with the intimacy of the subjects, it also allows us to be enveloped in the space of the painting. She seeks to capture that nourishing light that takes the viewer on a deep exploration of the self, a contemplative journey of memories, emotions and thoughts. “Look on a tree not only as a design but also as a living growing object, which almost has emotions like ourselves” Charles Burchfield. 

Each subject is treated with its own colour palette. Fahys plays on a chromatic dichotomy to highlight the interior and exterior worlds. Landscapes are depicted in cool tones of translucent blues and bright whites, revealing beams of light filtering through the branches of trees, while portraits are bathed in golden light, creating a warm, welcoming interior atmosphere. It is through her mastery of nuance in the rendering of light and colour that Fahys plunges us into veritable cosmos, worlds in their own right.