Silence vert 

Editor: So this is “Silence vert” by Monique Orsini, looks like it's done with acrylic and impasto, though I’m not seeing a creation date. I’m immediately struck by the artist’s gestural use of paint – it feels both turbulent and strangely calm at the same time. What’s your take on this piece? Curator: From a materialist perspective, it's fascinating to consider the artist's physical engagement with the acrylic. Look at the density and layering of the impasto. What kind of tools do you think she used to manipulate the paint like this, and how might the choice of those tools impact the final composition? The repetitive use of sweeping lines indicates to me a rhythmic engagement with the materials. How does the materiality influence the overall experience, challenging, or perhaps reinforcing, traditional distinctions between fine art and craft? Editor: That's a great point. You can almost imagine Orsini’s movements and the physical effort she invested. Do you think that physicality translates into a narrative about the creative process itself? Curator: Precisely. By focusing on process, materials, and their context, we can glean new information. How do Orsini's techniques perhaps allude to commercial art production? For example, the ways industrial products like acrylic paints and palette knives shape creative expression? The very “silence” implied by the title and evoked by the composition might comment on labor conditions...the quiet monotony of factory labor where there should instead be vibrancy. Editor: That’s fascinating. I hadn’t considered how the choice of acrylic paint, itself an industrial product, and the way she manipulated it, could inform our reading of the work's social and political undertones. I definitely learned a new way to approach abstract expressionism. Curator: Yes, examining materials and making processes really shifts how we see abstract expressionism.