Unrelated objects find harmony on Caterini’s canvas
Two bearded men, both wearing hard hats, are at work outside. One wields a shovel, the other a broom. A railway track runs behind them. Factory buildings dominate the background. Smoke stacks reach into a vividly coloured sky.
Ralph Caterini’s “Twilight at the Ovens,” a big oil, takes us to a steel plant. It is part of his exhibition of recent work at Carnegie Gallery.
Caterini, 59, has been exhibiting since the early 1980s. The Hamilton artist is a graduate of McMaster University and the University of Windsor. And he’s worked at Stelco.
“‘Twilight at the Ovens’ is based on my work experience in the coke ovens in Stelco from the ’70s to the ’80s,” he tells me. “The figures in the scene are based on myself.”
These are two good reasons why we might expect to find a fairly accurate account of Caterini’s experiences. Plus, he paints in a highly lifelike style.
The man on the right reaches out to his companion with a greeng-loved hand. He does not wear a glove on his other hand.
So f ar, so good. But Caterini thickens the plot. Mannequin heads lie on the ground around the men, and one man appears to be shovelling heads into a circular hole
in the pavement. Green and yellow flames rising from this brick-lined hole light up the men’s faces.
We have entered the Twilight Zone.
“The scene is not intended to be an accurate recall of the coke ovens but more of a fictitious fabrication alluding to the conditions in and around the ovens,” Caterini explains. “I have a collection of mannequin heads that I thought I’d put to good use and to add a dramatic narrative along with the intense lighting.”
Caterini also offers the unexpected in other paintings.
In “Thinking about You,” for instance, he’s brought a variety of images together. The largest rectangle encloses a woman holding a small snake near her breast. The woman resembles the dying Cleopatra in a 17th-century painting by Guido Reni.
But Caterini does not stop at a mere postmodern gesture. He attaches part of a real branch, a found object, to the painting’s surface. The branch’s colouring and its bent shape echo Cleopatra’s snake, creating a link between what’s in the painting and what’s on the surface.
Caterini has also screwed a wooden shelf to the bottom left of the painting. And he’s put an aerosol can of Raid on the shelf.
“The found objects in the paintings are random choices based on what I have available,” he says. “The objects and the images are put together in a way to avoid any logical narrative storytelling. I simply liked the upturned eyes in Reni’s painting and the abrupt and sudden change in meaning when looking at the image next to an unrelated object.”
Unrelated objects thrive in “Night in the Street.” This piece depicts a multicoloured stylized face against a city street painted in a lifelike style in black and white. A wooden shelf affixed to the left side holds shaving brushes. Two crutches, united by twisty twigs, stand on the floor, apparently supporting the painting.
The inventiveness behind these new works is no surprise. Caterini is always looking for new ways of expressing himself. Well known for his earlier female nudes and still lifes, he is now putting things together, he says, “in a way where everything can work together rather than consciously pursuing one specific approach and then changing to another approach which would each be viewed separately.”