TEMPO

Fantastic Figures, Group show at Better go South Gallery

STUTTGART

02.03 - 19.03.2023

BERLIN

GALLERY WEEK END

28.04.2023

DRUM SOLO - 2023- oil on canvas - 40 x 50 cm

CRASH CYMBALS - 2023- Oil on canvas - 100 x 80 cm

TEMPO UP RIDE - 2023- Oil on canvas - 40 x 50 cm

TEMPO UP RIDE - DETAIL - 2023- Oil on canvas - 40 x 50 cm

Instalation shot

PULSE AND SOUL - 2023- Oil on canvas - 100 x 80 cm

MAGIC DRUMSTICKS- 2023- Oil on canvas - 40 x 50 cm

UP BEAT - 2023- Oil on canvas - 30 x 25 cm

HEART BEAT VARIATIONS - 2023- Oil on canvas - 40 x 50 cm

Instalation shot

BEAM BEAT - 2023- Oil on canvas - 40 x 50 cm

HAND TO HAND FLAMS - 2023- Oil on canvas - 100 x 80 cm

HAND TO HAND FLAMS - DETAIL - 2023- Oil on canvas - 100 x 80 cm

TIME KEEPER - 2023- Oil on canvas - 20 x 30 cm

Instalation shot

Drum solo performance by drummer, Felix Schrack on the opening

«Rhythm is universal. All human beings swing without realising it, rhythm is all around you at all times». Art Blakey

Claire Fahys’s paintings situate us in the heat of the moment – where life reaches its peak intensity. From the frenzied, backfiring motorbikes of her urban ‘Rodeos’ speeding along in the whirlwind of youth, to her latest canvases that capture the masters of the drum kit mid-solo, Fahys plunges us in medias res to where the pulse of life is racing. But at a time when everything is accelerating, precisely what is this pulse of life that drives us? And what does this impulse (or this rush...) betray that burns within our world, like a fuel? I believe that these questions – this existential quest – guide Fahys’s practice. As if painting were capable of capturing what inhabits us, transcends us and keeps us alive, in the hectic rhythm of the drums and the dirt bikes. Where the bodies, launched at full speed, experiment with their instrument and their machine. In short, where creative forces bubble up and spill out, to remind us that every being carries a singular pulse deep inside.

On stage 

The importance of drummers in the history of modern music has typically been overlooked, their craft derided as a disturbing racket or primitive tapping. But Claire Fahys considers the instrument to be an art form in its own right, paying homage in her works to the marching brass bands of New Orleans and the military rolls of warfare. Claire Fahys considers the instrument to be an art form in its own right, however, paying homage in her works to the travelling brass bands of New Orleans and the military rolls of warfare. Her paintings present close-ups of the hands and sticks of virtuosos beating maple drums and bronze cymbals under blue, ochre or spotlights... Thus, it is through framing and the play of light that the drummers, usually so discreet or relegated to the background of concerts, find themselves here propelled centre stage. 

«Drummers are seen as ‘minor’ musicians. I’m tired of it. I want to make drummers realise that they can play music with their drums, that there is something beyond just holding the beat.» Tony Williams

Fahys goes further still, as she brings us over to the drummers’ side. The viewer is seated with the drummer behind the instrument, where the discourse builds up. The way the drummers hold their sticks; their posture; and the dazzle of their movements, attest to a formidable expressiveness. The inclination of the snare drum, the toms and the cymbals arranged around the musicians simultaneously reflects the complexity of the instrument and Fahys’s rigorous compositional work. Imposing masses and radiating discs oscillate onto the canvas, their singular aura that emanates from them, captured in paint

«Any unnecessary movement is a parasitic gesture. Playing drums means being constantly off balance. Each element of the drum set requires a particular technique. You have to adjust and look for balance.» Max Roach

Ultimately, there is a glow that emanates from the instrument, while the class and creativity of the drummer – so often undervalued – also shines through like a flashback.

Time keeper

But how to break down these dizzying drum solos into a single view, without distorting the fluid or rhythmic momentum that runs through each drummer? One must capture the tempo, the movement and the musicality that emanate from the drum kit at the very moment when the musicians are at one with it, in the middle of an improvisation. The instrument is multifaceted: it is that fundamental pulse from the dawn of humanity, where the ancestral rattle of a drum in trance resounds; it is the sharp sound of a snare drum slamming the back-beat for our dance steps; it is a bass drum with abysmal frequencies; it is a shower of stars spurting from a studded cymbal; a subtle swing in a smoky club; it is the polyrhythms of cultures mixed. A multitude of incantatory vibrations take hold of our entrails and translate to our ears the very movement of life.

The drums are brought to life by the flamboyance of the solos whose phrases rocket in the silence of a stunned hall, but the drums remain the time keeper. This tempo creates cohesion in a group, seals its unity, and shares its beat with the crowd: the drums are a heart-beat that makes possible this collective experience, and this sharing.

«Playing fast is one thing. Playing music, playing with others and for those who listen, is something else. It’s another dimension.» Tony Williams

Yes, tempo gives substance to music…and to all life. A life that continues to beat in our chest like a drum. 

François Salmeron

Art critic, member of AICA France (International Association of Art Critics)

Lecturer at the Universities of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and Paris 8 Saint-Denis

Doctoral student in Aesthetics at the University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (ED APESA)

Drummer

English : Sarah Bolwell

SHUFFLE GROOVE - 2023- Oil on canvas - 120 x 145 cm