The Parallel World of Cèlia Cooke
Cornelia Street Café
January 5 - 29, 2012
reception January 10. 5:30 - 7pm
Although
Célia
Cooke
(January
22
1948--March
30
2011)
studied
and
won
awards
for
art
and
design
in
college,
she
never
pursued
a
professional
career
in
the
visual
arts.
Yet
from
her
mid--20s
until
a
few
years
before
her
death
at
63,
she
persistently
and
passionately
took
Polaroid
photos.
She
left
behind
more
than
1200
images
that,
in
many
ways,
represent
a
leitmotif
of
her
life.
Her
Polaroids
ranged
from
casual
snapshots
taken
during
travels
to
elaborate
set--ups
featuring
little
toy
animals,
glassware,
kitchen
implements,
and
all
sorts
of
mundane
objects.
Apparently
she
positioned
them
with
a
patience
and
concentration
that
bordered
on
the
obsessive.
As
I
went
through
Célia’s
body
of
work,
one
thing
always
emerged
as
a
constant
interest:
the
quality
of
light
and
shadow
and
their
power
of
transfiguring
the
world
around
us.
Through
her
Polaroid
camera’s
kaleidoscopic
lens,
Célia
explored
different
themes:
her
own
body,
her
home,
the
man
with
whom
she
shared
her
life
and
space,
the
remains
of
everyday
life,
and,
of
course,
her
constructed
still--life
scenarios.
Yet
all
the
situations
she
portrays
somehow
seem
like
accidental
yet
necessary
gateways
that
enabled
her
to
chase,
reach
or
simply
create
the
world
she
needed
to
see,
a
desired
world.
As
any
artist,
she
chased
her
own
desire.
Interestingly,
Célia’s
hand
often
appears
in
the
constructed
scenario,
as
if
to
reach
into
it
yet
never
quite
succeeding
in
doing
so,
or
in
a
gesture
of
longing,
as
if
the
scene
was
escaping
from
her.
This
part
of
herself
breaking
into
the
frame
seems
to
have
the
function
of
a
bridge
between
two
worlds,
the
here
and
now
outside
the
frame
where
also
us,
the
spectators
are
positioned
and
the
desired
world,
or
better
the
world
of
desire
on
the
other
side.
Only
two
booklets
of
photos
she
put
together
explicitly
testify
of
her
narrative
intention.
One
of
the
two
explores
the
body
and
the
environment
in
a
much
darker
atmosphere,
almost
solid
and
ink
dyed
far
from
the
warm
afternoon
light
of
most
of
her
pictures
--
a
possible
new
direction
of
her
work.
Choosing
among
hundreds
of
images
was
not
easy.
However,
with
my
selections
I
tried
to
represent
the
variety
of
genres
and
subjects
that
Célia’s
Polaroids
explore.
Maria Scarpini
New York, January 12, 2012
click here to see some more of Celia's artwork
