Exhibitions cycle: WHAT IF WOMEN RULED THE WORLD? Part 2
Claudia Comte’s new commission for EMΣΤ, The Origin of the Shockwave Ripple Effect (yellow and turquoise) (2024), is a captivating wall painting that extends across a 30-metre corridor, seamlessly connecting the Museum’s main area to its entrance foyer. The work exemplifies Comte’s unique blend of traditional hand processes and modern technology, showcasing her affinity for organic patterns and morphology. Comte is renowned for her site-specific installations, paintings, and sculptures that often draw from nature’s intricate designs, like waves, sonar patterns, cacti, and rock strata. Her works are not just visual feasts but immersive environments that invite viewers to engage and interpret. Comte’s works make reference to popular culture, nature, cultural symbols and art movements like Op art, Concrete art and Pop art. Her wall paintings are computer-generated images inspired by natural forms. The patterns she chooses are developed digitally as the artist always starts by producing a rendering. Following this, she uses vinyl like a stencil and then she paints directly onto the wall.
The Origin of the Shockwave Ripple Effect (yellow and turquoise) is a vivid representation of Comte’s artistic practice. The wall painting features an arresting ripple effect, pinched in the middle, creating a dynamic visual movement. This ripple wraps around a hollow body, producing contrasting perceptions on either side. Adding to its allure is a colour gradient flowing from turquoise to yellow, culminating in white, echoing the vibrancy and diversity of nature. It is an intricate dance of colours and forms that resonates with the Μuseum’s landmark modernist architecture. The turquoise horizontal lines mimic the waves’ movement, leading visitors through the space. These lines transform into a more linear form as they merge into the yellow zone, eventually culminating in a seed-like black and white motif. This artwork is not only a visual journey but also a metaphorical one. It symbolises the impact of today’s decisions on nature, illustrating how even the smallest actions can create ripples of change, much like a water droplet creates infinite waves, inviting viewers to think about the environmental issues of our time. The Origin of the Shockwave Ripple Effect (yellow and turquoise) stands as a testament to Claudia Comte’s persistence in creating art that is both visually stunning and thought provoking. Blurring the lines between art, nature, and architecture Comte’s work offers visitors a unique visual and sensory experience.
Curator: Daphne Vitali
BIOGRAPHY
Claudia Comte’s practice is guided by a longstanding interest in teasing out the history and memory of biomorphic forms through traditional hand processes, industrial and machine technologies. Comte’s site-specific installations bring together monumental wall paintings and sculptures inspired by organic patterns and morphology, and pay testament to the intelligence and transformative capacities of the ecological world. Comte has shown her work in solo and group exhibitions around the world, including at Globus Public Art Project/Fondation Beyeler, Switzerland (2023), Foundación Casa Wabi, Puerto Escondido, Mexico (2023), Museum Haus Konstruktiv, Zurich, Switzerland (2022), Desert X AlUla, Saudi Arabia (2022), The Dreamers, 58th October Salon – Belgrade Biennale, Belgrade, Serbia (2021), Museo Nacional Thyssen – Bornemisza, Madrid, Spain (2021), Copenhagen Contemporary, Copenhagen, Denmark (2019); Castello di Rivoli, Turin, Italy (2019). Comte was born in 1983 in Grancy, Switzerland. She is based in Basel.
SUPPORTED BY
The exhibition of Claudia Comte forms part of the Residency Program of the Project SUB 6.4, “Actions to promote Greek cultural exports and strengthen the Greek cultural name by the National Museum of Contemporary Art Athens”, which is implemented within the framework of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan “Greece 2.0”, funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU.
