CoCom Sculpture

Weaving against wasteland A statement by Clare Mary Puyfoulhoux "Growing up in Romania in the eighties might be one of the reasons why Andreea Talpeanu engaged in such an unusual field of artistic expression. But saying that says nothing. Because what Andreea does, she does it with her fingers, with fabric and with talent but she also does it with her brain and heart. Her productions are woven in a political statement against all the waste modernity produces. They are the tamed expression of something raw that grows inside of her and needs to come out, something that cannot remain silent. What Andreea’s hands create is an aesthetic reaction to the things that disturb her: half broken chairs left to die in the streets, abandoned pieces of clothing that can still shine, neglected lands people transit through without even noticing the way their modern life ruins them. As such, her gesture could be seen as ethical. And it is, ethical, but it is more than that. Untamable, the feelings she is, as a human being, nearly oppressed by, found a way of transforming themselves into something aesthetical through the constant, uncompromising and meticulous work she produces. Fighting with the means of an old lady (pieces of cloth, wool and threads) against an over leisurely society doesn’t necessarily mean yesterday was a golden age. Andreea Talpeanu’s work is more a delicate expression of faith than an aggressive protestation. Turning garbage into flesh, building beautiful and elegant bodies: the gesture is a generous gift of life to objects otherwise worse thandead, erased. Sewing is something the artist learnt with her grandma. Sewing is something women do, historically. When Andreea Talpeanu sews though, it has nothing to do with womanhood. It is more like building a meaning and direction. Like a reversed version of Ariadne's thread, the artist draws material lines around fragments of the world. She doesn’t come from outside the maze in order to save trapped humans or fight against mythological creatures without losing herself. On the contrary, she is inside the maze/world/trap and tries to find a way out of it by means of material exploration. And this gesture is all the more it explains why she studied architecture. It answers one of the most crucial questions of life: how does one relate to space and time?" "What Andreea Talpeanu does, she does it with her fingers, with fabric and with talent but she also does it with her brain and heart.