‘The landscape in front of me is like an open book that I choose to see how far I can be transported by.’

As part of his ongoing exploration of landscape, Christophe Stibio presents new works in his upcoming exhibition, Flesh of the Coastal Fire Trail. This new body of work is influenced by the Rorschach inkblot test from 1921, which was designed as a tool onto which unconscious parts of the personality could be projected. In other words, while being shown the same inkblot, each person saw entirely different things. Rorschach’s work, contrary to his hopes, never emerged as a compiled theoretical research and remains unfinished.

Exploring this central idea of incompletion – one of life’s main features – along with his last meeting with the Royal National Park on NSW’s central coast, Stibio’s new series is a carefully formulated non-allegorical response to landscape. Refusing to go along with the inherited and persisting image of an alienated human presence in an excluding hostile environment, Stibio instead invites us to approach the landscape in a more open manner. The strips of shredded documents layered onto his work prompt images that keep moving, mutate and self-transform, creating a space for projection much like that of the Rorschach ink blot.

These paintings do not conform to any pre-existing, fantasized idea of what the landscape should be. Instead they choose to render its multiplicity - not just fear-invoking magnitude, but also its fragility and intimacy.


Image above:
Christophe Stibio Flesh of the Coastal Fire Trail
natural pigments, shredded documents and rice paper on canvas, 132 x 142cm

About the artist
Having undertaken fine art training under the tutelage of Chinese master painters, French born artist Christophe Stibio’s resulting practice revolves around a work ethic combining patience, control and an astute awareness of time.

In the past three years he has been shortlisted for the Fleurieu Landscape Prize, the Fleurieu Water Prize, the Paddington Art Prize, and twice for the Stan & Maureen Duke Gold Coast Art Prize.

More information on Christophe's practice and a link through to his cv can be found here.