Catalogus Sidi El Karchi | LMAKprojects | 2007

Catalogus

Sidi El Karchi
Small World Melancholy
LMAKprojects
New York, 2007
20 x 26 cm
56 p

An artist either aware or unaware is always forced to take or determine a stand in relation to the world. He lives in a complex force field with multiple and varying notions run from cultural reality, influences of art history, trends within the art world or even the relation to the viewer, all weighing in and dangerously influencing the artist, much like the mythological story of Odysseus and the sirens. As the sirens attempt to seduce Odysseus with their voices, he was clever enough to withstand the temptation through tying himself and his crew to the mast. In the past few years Sidi El Karchi developed a strong self awareness in relation to the potential dangerous cliffs within his artistic Odysseus’ world. He realized the importance of respecting the process of creation and its quality, trusting his own ability enough to tie himself to the mast of creative talent. It is about an artistic calling, which is in essence solitude, similar to a monk. Therefore it is not surprising hat ‘the Actor’, ‘the Painter’ and ‘the Clown’ (the title of El Karchi’s first museum solo in the Netherlands; 2005, Museum Het Domein) is followed by ‘the Hermit’, maintaining the iconological theme within his work. The Poet Rainer Maria Rilke once said that art is the medium of the individualist, filled by solitude the artist searches within and in turn translates this venture through a visual creation. As El Karchi’s favorite painters, David Hockney, once observed about another Dutch artist: ‘Sometimes certain sensitive individuals, such as Rembrandt, cross the line, transcending mere naturalism to produce paintings that not only depict exterior reality, but also reveal inner truths’.