Chaîne Opératoire

Willem Weismann's first solo show in Portugal presents a new series of paintings and includes an ambitious large-scale 6.4 meters long painting, the largest one the artist has completed to date.

Chaîne Opératoire is a concept used in archaeology and anthropology coined by the French archaeologist and ethnologist André Leroi-Gourhan. Its basic definition refers to the range of processes by which naturally occurring raw materials are selected, shaped and transformed into usable cultural products. An example of the application of this thinking would be to look at the creation of a simple hand-axe as a method to address the complex social, ecological and cognitive dimensions to these activities.

These colourful works feature rubble, trash and just “stuff” both from times long in the past and the past five minutes being brought to the surface, as if someone has been cleaning out a planet-sized closet. What may go unnoticed at first glance is that the work can be further deconstructed, as the literal painting process has left its own history on the canvas. Weismann uses the canvas surface for the totality of all paint and brush related actions, as this is where his brushes have been wiped clean and the canvas used as a palette. The inclusion of every brush-related action on the canvas forms a complete historic residue and the reverberating noise of leftovers that have fallen by the wayside. The paintings function as mineral deposits, workspace, and trash heap. The combination of which constitutes another chapter in the research of Weismann's examinations in use value, obsolescence, inclusiveness and waste.