ONRUST/RUSTON

I sat down to talk with Gwen Tatreaux at the ICC cafe, surrounded by the work of her current show, ONRUST/RUSTON, running through April 3rd.

The show featured new work, including an auto-biographical installation and a torn and rusty wedding dress of found objects which is to be used in an upcoming video project. We talked about the plans for the video excitedly for 30 minutes, but it would be impossible to explain here. On display is a daily journal of prints made through the winter using flotsam and jetsam from walks on the beaches of Islesboro, and a selection of multi media rope & chart works, the pieces spanning the evolution and progression over a decade.

These pieces generally feature sinuous rope, depicted in tessellated cut outs of nautical charts. The works often incorporate metallic patinas made from found-iron, mica, and seawater.

The earliest examples are from 2015, up to a recent piece that eschews knots and tangles of rope for a straight piece of line, frayed to a single thread holding the two ends together. We also talked about her upcoming residency in Iceland, lost dogs, and the concept of re-enchantment.

“I don't enjoy making this work for the most part, but it feels like… it doesn't feel like, it IS, the currency I use to stay here. What I do like about the chart-knot work is that pretty much anyone can come off the water, or the road, and walk in and get it. Charts, Rust, cool. It's right there. And then if you spend some time with it, it's the sense of place, Rusting…time. Then … why is everything in knots? Why is it a mess? Like, wait, why is it shredding? And then if you sit with them, you can go places.

One of my rules is that I use charts that have actually have been to the places that they depict.. I don't buy charts, my favorite is when the nautical notations are still on there. Some dead reckonings or which mooring to use.

…The patinas I make are from rusted bits that I find either on the shore or the bottle dumps. I have these vats of salt water and these rusted bits and then you sludge out the patina.

I really love passive processes right? … set something up and see what happens.”

They asked me the standard art interview question: “What’s one of your biggest influences on your work?”

“It's poverty. Like legit. Oh, where do you think this body of work would go if I had unlimited income and time? Who knows! I mean, there's the other argument, as in the limitations end up being collaborators in this certain sense.”

“There is romance to the islands…

You go to the Glasgow or something or the Scottish islands or something. It's like, oh, so you're gonna go and not be like romantically affected by the landscape? You're dead. Why did you go? Why are you there?

It's not just being enchanted. That’s almost… enchantment has died. I think we did that, we killed it. But re-enchantment, no, it's still there. But how do you find it? I think it might not even be finding it. If you're really lucky, you can find re-enchantment. But it's an adult task of cultivating it. You have to make it. I don’t think you’re going to just find it. There’s only so many gifts like that you get in life .

You just have to try harder as an adult.”

“Did you see that T-shirt I made for Sammy’s Deluxe? It's like a drawing of a trailer, with a three-legged cat and a four wheeler and bag of trash. It says, “Keep Maine shitty”, but shitty's crossed out, and instead it says “Authentic”.”