Helios - paintings by Bettina Forget

Art en Majuscule

950 rue Ottawa
Montreal, Quebec
Canada
May 7, 2005 3:00 PM
The Helios Series takes you on a voyage to the Sun. See the
Sun’s granulated surface, sun-spots, the photosphere, eclipses,
solar flares,... but not in the way you expect. These are not astronomical illustrations, but interpretations of the subject matter.

Drawing a parallel between the Sun and fire, Bettina Forget
actually burns the canvas, leaving delicate scorch-marks on the
paint and the raw linen. For her Eclipse paintings, she cuts holes
into the canvas and suspends the moon in the void with strings,
re-creating delicate sun-rays. Casts of fossils and seashells are
part of some paintings, pointing to the Sun as the origin of all
life on Earth. And re-appearing again and again are traces of
texts, written directly onto the canvas: astronomical data, personal musings, a poem by Goethe,... “Painting for me is about taking risks,” says the artist. “ I like to experiment with my materials and my process of making art. My aim is to push each new painting to its limits and not to repeat myself.”