Cynthia Daignault: ‘The Lemon’

A Uniquely Satisfying and Transformative Moment

In today’s art world, appropriation can sometimes be a slippery slope, as it so often leads to questions not only of authenticity but of intentionality.  The very best examples of appropriation happen when a central transformation occurs within the new(er) version of the appropriated work. These kinds of transformations are rare and difficult to achieve for the simple reason that it is so easy to rely on the inherent content of the original work to carry it.

Stable Diffusion

Cynthia Daignault’s second exhibition at Night Gallery downtown represents a uniquely satisfying and transformative moment that reveals as much about her own artistic impulses as it does those of Eduard Manet or Camille Pissarro. Daignault’s chosen title for the show, The Lemon, (derived from Manet’s famous painting Le Citron, a still life of a lemon on a dark plate), reflects her fascination with collective consciousness and the idea that no matter our deliberately cultivated “separateness” (an idea undoubtedly sustained by the human ego), we are, in fact, always in conversation with each other, across space and time.

The Collection

Daignault’s exhibition raises questions regarding individual capacity and identity. In the press release she tells us that ideas and works repeat over time and space, and so why not human beings as well? Apparently, somewhere in the world there exists a person with our exact features – not a twin by birth – but a kind of cosmic doppelganger. Daignault would find this idea quite comforting. and certainly the work that comprises this exhibition is both a celebration of likeness and a veritable compendium of transmutation.

At the heart of this exhibition, however, is love, plain and simple. Works like the large-scale Collection, which appears to function as exactly that – a collection of important art historical works that have defined the world we live in and have come to be synonymous with what we might term “great art,” Daignault’s intentions veer more in the direction of honorific love songs than staid and boring re-imaginings. One might ask, where does the transformation occur within this work, or more specifically, where do these visionary artist’s ideas end and Daignault’s begin?

The Lemon

I would argue that this is precisely the point of this grouping of images. Daignault is most definitely not Georgia O’Keeffe nor Vincent Van Gogh, however, she has recognized “the essential conversation” that exists between all living beings, that though our lives “be rounded with a sleep,” all our living moments and the experiences derived from them, are always shared and exist on a continuum through time and space.

The Still-Life

Perhaps the most radical and evocative work in the exhibition is Luncheon, (after Manet’s groundbreaking and scandalous image Luncheon on the Grass). Daignault’s approach to creating or reimagining this seminal artwork has more in common with the modernist sensibilities of Cezanne than say that of Manet, in that she deliberately disrupts our expectations of what an image should be, i.e., easily read and understood. Instead, she takes Manet’s original intention, to disrupt and facilitate a new way of seeing, and completely obliterates it, leaving behind only a far reaching and electrifying smear. I have a sneaking suspicion that Manet would be proud.

Cover image: Lemons II; all images courtesy of Night Gallery.