If I already wasn’t sold on Chantal Khoury's paintings (and I’m reminded of that every single time I come across her work), the phrase "unhardening of history," used in the exhibition text at Bradley Ertaskiran in Montreal, would certainly get me there. The way the forms in her canvases seem to flutter and sway feels magical as it is, but seeing the poetic weight through this phrase makes them that much more special and impactful.
We live at times when we’re increasingly reminded that history isn’t as solid as we were taught. Where it once took effort to question the 'facts' of history, these days it takes effort to believe any of them. While we can all agree that 'winners write history,' it turns out that oppressors may come out as winners from time to time. Understanding this notion completely changes the perspective, and this is how I see the "unhardening of history."
To make it clear, NONE of these thoughts are mentioned in connection to Khoury‘s exhibition. They are merely my personal ideas when thinking about the phrase. But somehow, I can’t help but feel that I’m not too far off mark when going there. After all, I’m an impulsive Eastern European, and Khoury is a Canadian of Lebanese descent, so her approach is much more poetic, softer, and more difficult to shake off once presented. In her work, she explores the idea of encountering objects that symbolize home and community, and how their appearances and the experiences they evoke change over time. The inanimate inherited heirlooms, kitchenware, or porcelain become spiritual beings filled with pulsating life. And on top of being an exceptional colorist, Khoury developed a mesmerizing painterly technique to convey that. The old phrase "mix of abstraction and representation" is often used to describe her works, but I feel they are neither. Instead, her fluid gestures, distinct color palette, translucent surfaces, and radiating imagery convey something completely different, something personal yet universally understandable and enjoyable for the eye and soul that’s willing to go there. —Saša Bogojev
