Ensemble 8
KREKRI … AZULE ... SC Dpt of ARCHIVES & HISTORY ... FAST & FRENCH ...
Remember to Create Communities?
1989-2020
Each drawing: 60"x40"
Installation: 85"x140"x2"
The CENTRAL CHARACTER of Ensemble 8 is Gwylene’s mother (Krekri), close to the end of her life, confusing angels for kids – and kids for angels – although wishing to remain in charge. The original image shows her sitting on a sofa with two people: Louise Graff aka LOGR, who was the initiator of the Yukon river adventure in 1996, at the origin of the Charleston/Atlanta/Alaska Challenge, and Manolly Davany aka MADA, who adopted crazy Bismark, CEMA aka Celeste Mauclet‘s dog. It was enlarged using 28 laser copies 11″x17″, and transferred manually on canvas.
Other pictures of Gwylene and her mother are memorable. Julia Cart took some on a large porch on Calhoun St. Julia who happened to bike on Broad St while we were installing the cafe in 1984; Julia, one of the first customers and advocates; Julia, a photographer, specialist of the black & white 4″ x 5″ large camera, studying operas at the college; Julia, a Fast & French board member; the mother of Alexa aka ALKE; Julia aka JUCA; Julia, a friend with a rich humor.
The VIDEO PANORAMIC IMAGE on canvas comes from “33 Gorenflo Gap” a temporary outdoor installation, worked on from 1989 to 1993 with 5 miles of rope and 10 sound stations in a cove in the NC Appalachian mountains, belonging to Camille and Dave Shafer (See Ensemble 9). The cove is now part of AZULE, a place that “provides an environment where Artists and Community meet, work and learn together through the arts in their many forms.” Gwylene’s first 9 months in the States (1975-76) were spent in Bluff, the actual location of AZULE. Olivier Rollin, Bernard Crespin and her came to live as a collective of artists with Camille and Dave. They had met Camille while studying art in Paris. A long time friend of Dave, photographer Tad Stamm joined, leaving Toledo OH, after his mother’s death.
And also read Camille & Gwylene’s story on their long lasting common history.
- In 1989, Camille offered Gwylene an outdoor studio in Bluff, “the Cove behind the Barn.” From sweating in a restaurant (Gaulart & Maliclet French Café, aka Fast & French) to breezing in the mountains! It was so welcome!. For her MFA at Concordia Univeristy (Montreal 1982), Gwylene challenged the Foot-Brain connection! She had strung ropes, at baseboard level, across the gallery space. To go read pages of text on the wal was an obstacle course. Now in “the Cove behind the Barn” Gwylene started to shoot ropes horizontally from one side of the cove to the other. There, however, the ropes were crossing way above brains and feet !
- In September 1993, “33 Gorenflo Gap, Step 1, after four years”, also called THE BLUE ROPES, opened to the public for two extended weekends. “A temporary 8 acre park. Wilderness overlaid with manmade grids, 5 miles of taut ropes over the landscape, pathways, and trails, sound stations and markers. Faced with such a work intensive, yet short-lived piece, and the investigation into meanings emphasized by the sound, viewers will be led to question the ‘why of art’, its purpose beyond any potential use and market value. ” In 1993 it served as the public opening for “AZULE VISITING ARTISTS PLACE”, a North Carolina non-profit.
‘At the opening I heard that “the 33” address was wrong. It should have been “32 Gorenflo Gap.” Today though according to online maps, it is not on Gorenflo Gap anymore. “Rabbit Den Road”, its original name had been reinstated.’
One of the sound tapes was the reading of a letter to her mother (Krekri), where Gwylene was raising some artistic concerns, in her unique blend of French and English. Krekri repeatedly used a copy of this letter and its recording in her attempts to inform her friends and family of an art installation she had actually never seen.
1976
2006
2011
- – In 1976, the Frenchies, Gwylene-Bernard-Olivier had their visa extension denied. During a wonderful, although sad farewell party Bernard shot a series of portraits of locals. Seating one at a time in a darkroom they would not know exactly when, between 1 and 300 seconds, the flash would be activated. This photo project became a community tradition, when in 2006 it was revised and revived at every AZULE Holiday Party. Each year Gwylene transferred the portraits on canvas. They can be researched and annotated. In a way the canvases propose to play with memories; and continue to grow a community. There was no event since 2020, due to Covid.
Oral memories may last 800 years.
Written memories, they will last as long as stone or parchment, or bark, or glass.
Media memories are ruled by offer and demand.
Digitized memories … imagine, fancy, guess, propose many histories of our stories …
HISTORY OF A FEW BECOMES
MEMORY OF ALL. And AGAIN
HISTORY IS NOT A VIRGIN
The texts above, among others, are carved on glass plates and composite stone benches in the garden of the SC Dpt of Archives & History (Columbia, SC). Sadly the stone composite of the benches does not look good after a rainfall.
Thank you Harriet Green and Rusty Sox.
Fast & French? “this café is an art project by 1st generation immigrants”. Since 1984 it defies statistics. This was not imported French. It is ‘local’ French. From design (logo, layout, furniture, recipes) to procedures (job descriptions, food-cost, serving, cooking, dishwashing, scheduling, controlling, …) learning was/is hands on.
The spirit of the arts is abuzz at the cafe. Conversations across geographies and time. Employees as cultural workers, artists, together – and customers too. An accumulation of stories, memories, possibly alternative histories, multi-cultural humor, partnering with others, many journeys, skydiving, attempts at poetry? It is a community, it has its wonders and some failures.
Profits were slow to come but clear values and policies created a community. If we had not been artists, would it still exist?
Above pictures show the 25th anniversary (2009 City Gallery at Waterfront Park) with lines of hung memorabilia brought by staff or customers. That day, everybody could eat for free. All day. Writer Darryl Wellington, ready to leave town because of its racism, filled up five shelves with literary books for anyone to grasp. Access to the City Gallery was the result of a trade for a bright red computer desk created by Jean-Marie Mauclet.
The “Gaulart & Maliclet” you see above is 15 years younger that the “Fast & French Charleston” below. 2024 will see the 40th anniversary of “Fast & French.” The last 12 years have allowed former employees to experiment with ownership of the place. Artworks by late James Polzois, a customer from day one of the cafe, friend of all employees and often a harsh critic, are now on the walls. And even ropes made it to the ceiling!
Another Gaulart & Maliclet French Cafe, aka Fast & French existed from 1987 to 2002 in Cary NC. It was locally managed for 15 years in a typical American strip mall. Managed sometimes very badly, sometimes very well. Amy Thompson ran it with love for many years. Same furnitures, same basic menu, same mission as in Charleston. But no Frenchies. On a strip mall, imagine !
Many other cafes were proposed and designed. Even one in Astrakhan on the Caspian Sea. This one asked for a lot of translations (Russian, French). And also no chicken breasts without bones; dressings could not be customer choice as in Russia they depend on vegetables and their traditional marination.
There is no digital documentation from these early years, only faded slides or small pictures. And so many stories in many different heads!
Pictures above include LAMI, LIMI, LAWA, JEBR, ALKE, MECH, REST, CAWA, OMFO, LALI, among others.
