71. MICHAËL BORREMANS: A SPACE BETWEEN STATES.

Michaël Borremans: The Monkey - David Zwirner - LONDON.

Michaël Borremans, The Spaceman, 2023. Oil on canvas, 25 3/4 x 19 3/4 inches. - Image courtesy David Zwirner.

To see a little scene play as if opening - in a space between states - of dreaming and awakening - a kindred forest sprouts from a nursery floor - feathered shadows emerge to dart in the imagined glow of birthday candles - memories returning in a fleeting -

Reimagining a past as vital as a present. Are these the monkeys of fables - the pinpoints of lucid imaginings? Disturbing my consciousness.

Padded armour protects and maintains control - as to bolster - to prevent bruising and yet to withhold growth. 

Sweltering satins are stainless - evading permanence.

Dazed expressions caught - in thought - watching horizons of unseen landscapes where eyes murmur in weariness and these suits of armour - awaiting battles - never to arrive - ready to move yet exhausted from internal wars - to remain paused as a shadow supports the sheen of sateen - tarnished as the lustre dissolves to fevered flesh.

To sketch with paint as Magritte - to anticipate an impression before the moment is lived - before these moments are lost - to errantly dissipate from view as a thought passes - as a cloud blocks the sun.
Where the face is enclosed as a miniature - framed by repression - enforced by preparation.

As images progress - a paused surface - now encased behind glass - seen to frighten with feeling - as a witnessing of experience - caught between gazes - from childhood to adulthood - to look down from above as to stand over a world accepted.

A monkey becomes me, becomes us - as I do not see your face - the stretched shadows on a boundary - glaze into the ochres of the unknown - as a micro figure falls - rigid to return or to become itself - adult and brittle - dry of lucidity.

And yet these gleamings of forehead and lustrous satins remind  - that to sweat is to live - that despite this control to perspire - is evidence of being - not just existing.

The monkey faced friend - invisible no more - as a toy of before - re-found in the confluence of childhood. Those placid eyes wet from tears - or the varnish of remembered emotion - trespassing - a smeared collar and tender tipped ears - as a flash bulb searches in urgent remembrance - looking back to stare as if for the first time - when once the gaze was invisible - from seeing so many times.

Imperceptible to observe - to imagine as a fly on a wall - to return to satin as if to costume the awaiting matinee of again and again - and yet these occasional shadows - remind of a reality - which is evidenced and matters more as a truth grows - and a face begins to dissolve - as I try to remember.

Michaël Borremans, The Gardener, 2023 - Oil on wood panel, 7 7/8 x 11 3/8 inches (20 x 29 cm) - Image courtesy David Zwirner.

Michaël Borremans - The Monkey - David Zwirner - LONDON - Until 26 July 2024.

Special thanks: Sara Chan and Niamh Brogan at David Zwirner.