Painter and action artist Peter Poplaski
about RIKA DERYCKERE
A Flemish figure painter from Belgium who has been living, since 1994, in les Cevennes, a mountainous region in Languedoc in the beautiful south of France.
As an artist, her chief concern has always been the human figure in motion as if in a dance, physically and emotionally expressing experiences we all share as individuals or as part of a group in our place in the world. Our bodies are our universal connection with each other in space. And since these physical bodies we have reflect our thoughts, our actions, our choices, our environments, she tries to study and isolate and then combine some or all of these elements searching for significant poses and gestures, that then rendered in an oil painting, or a drawing, or a woodcut or etching, of the action of a model or a dancer as they move and bend in extreme positions, almost to breaking, becoming near abstract forms. These twisted compressed or stretching grasping reaching figures she has been developing, recently have been combined with disturbing urban landscapes, modern ruins, that she has seen from the windows of trains she have been traveling on. Evoking the feelings felt passing through the ragged edges of big cities challenged Rika to create a visual chemical reaction, to make a volatile communication expressing how we are sometimes forced to inhabit these zones of growth and decay that we call cities. Mass populations have to live their lives with them and in them. She watched those landscapes that were distant and broken when viewed from the speeding train become more mysterious and haunting up close as the train then passed by leaving them dark silhouettes that were etched in her mind. The figure studies then are of the abrupt angular dance poses that imply movement frozen into a lamentation over the effect of time on our sensibilities and our creations are then situated on the stage of these abandoned shells of civilization.
The initial spark that ignited her sense of creativity no doubt occurred during the period between the years 1970 to 1991. At that time she frequented and studied in a number of art schools and studios in Holland, Belgium, Spain, and Cyprus. She took studio art courses, of course, but also studied dance and theatre for a number of years. The first one-person painting exhibition was in 1989. Since that time she have been extremely active having one-man shows, but also participating in numerous art competitions and invitational exhibitions in Madrid, Holland, Berlin, London, Cyprus, the USA, the Czech Republic, and of course, France. As a result, her work is part of many private and public collections across the world.”
Annie Murat (les éditions du taillepage) écrit
Avez vous déjà rencontré un géant? Avez-vous visité l’atelier de Vulcain, la maison de l’ogre, la tanière de la Vouivre, le cœur des solfatares? Savez-vous qui est cette rousse rigolote qui vous y accueille ? Elle est la force, et la puissance. Elle est ce qui soulève et terrorise. Elle est la main qui pétrit les chairs, leur rend la vérité.
Corps flamboyants ou désastre de la décrépitude, nous sommes là, nous les femmes, sans masque, dans notre sauvagerie originelle ; déesses surabondantes, nous engendrons le monde, nous le dévorons, et rendons les armes. Ailleurs, comme séparés de nous à jamais, nos compagnons. Débarrassés de leurs oripeaux, ils apparaissent tels que nous les connaissons et qu’ils s’ignorent, totalement démunis et si proches, si semblables à nous. Elle montre tout, Rika. Sans patience, mais avec tant de compassion. Et si vous avez peur dans le noir, évitez de rencontrer sa période Madrilène. Evitez. Tournez-vous plutôt vers ses trois grâces bien en chair qui dansent et tournoient dans le soleil. Dites-vous qu’elles sont appétissantes et robustes, et heureuses. Surtout, ne vous demandez pas qui souffle dans la flûte, qui frappe le tambour pour rythmer leurs pas. N’attachez pas d’importance à la torsion qui force les corps. Elles dansent, voilà tout, vous dit l’artiste. Faites semblant de la croire, mais n’oubliez pas que cette femme frêle est celle-là même qui a peint Cœur Manger.
Au sortir de cet atelier, vous ferez comme moi une découverte bouleversante : la main qui à sculpté la petite statuette, vous savez, aux premiers âges, celle qu’on dit être l’image de la fécondité, cette main était la main d’une femme. La propre sœur de Rika Deryckere.