Guitarface in Birdland

The present work is based on a double process of organization and dislocation, of ordering and dis-ordering, leaving it to the spectator to re-order its interacting forms. This "organization" is made to depend on an impression of symmetry, on a semblance of centering achieved by the round shape in the middle which is made to "radiate" through the diagonals which go through it. The table at the lower level creates an impression of stability, which paradoxically, furthers instability. This "table" presents us with three fundamental shapes in geometry, a square, a lozenge and a circle arranged in a line as if they were the pre-requisite for any construction, and made even more stable with the blue triangle on top of them. Symmetry is also achieved by the two eye-shapes, or I'd rather say, the two shapes which look like a feminine sex, unmistakably, on both sides - enhanced by the thick black semi-circles on each side. This symmetry and the corresponding reference to the body are strengthened by the humorous allusion to testicles under the table - another organic reference! In the same way, lightness and heaviness combine in the drawing of the falling bird - unless it be a fish - right in the middle of the painting.
As often in Banting, the organic contrasts with the geometrical, a tension which opens the viewer on to another reality, a surreality in the full sense of the word. Indeed, the eye is made active, endlessly tossed between the concept of dislocation and the concept of re-location, exactly as the title epitomizes and as the two skeleton-like hands seem to imply, one rising, the other falling, thus creating an endless circular movement.
M.R.