Paula Bonet: The Eel. Flesh as Paint and Paint as Mirror

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Image courtesy of Fundacio Vila Casas.

Paula Bonet first painted with brushes (part one), then with her hands (part two) and later on using the inclination of the ground (part three). Bonet’s idea was to disappear in the painting. For this reason, in the works that were originally intended to be the end (part three) of this exhibition, her aim was that the white of the canvas would blend in with the white of the wall.

But this was years ago, when the painter still felt fear.

The Eel that reaches Fundació Vila Casas now is a revised one: the animal has already gone through its first mutation and now the artist does not seek to disappear. It is no longer the transparent willow leaf that instinctively crossed a whole ocean, swam up a river and buried itself in the mud so as not to feel anything.

Now the painter reaffirms herself, expresses her opinion and tears the canvas if required. The eel is flesh that crawls, taking advantage of the layer of mucous that envelopes it and the sliminess of the medium for glazing, on the surface of the linen fabrics which are up to four meters in length. She recuperates a figuration that coexists in harmony with the abstract works of the previous eel and also with the word, given that she rescues and places on the walls, alongside the canvases, segments of texts from the novel that goes by the same name, which was published by Anagrama in 2021.

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