For Ferle, painting is a ‘moment’ which alone justifies the motion of the artist, mobilized physically by the composition of her work. Her canvasses entice us to abandon all known references and leave us submerged by the spirituality that they are so full of.
“It is non-figurative but really not informal.” This is how Ferle herself describes her sometimes gigantic canvasses ( up to as much as 2,08m in height), composed of “patterns repeated in an irregular symmetry,” interrupted by a “setback.”
In fact, faced with these abstract compositions the viewer initially seeks a similarity. This “setback’ of which the artist talks, is it a boundary or an horizon? This intense red does it represent a flamboyant sky? And this deep black, a chasm? But very rapidly ones mind is swept away by this strange vis-à-vis.Then commences a dive (or is it a flight?) into the very depths of the canvas.Those who, like the art historian and curator Emmanuel Daydé experienced this voyage compare the works of Ferle to “doors (opening) on to the infinite, towards a sort of spirituality issued from the very body itself.”
There is without a shred of doubt a form of spirituality in Ferle’s painting, even though her method of painting requires a total physical involvement. The artist begins by placing sheets of paper on the floor onto which she projects china ink with a brush : ” This is energy building, arranging itself on a surface” says she.
Not surprising therefore that Ferle draws a parallel with a physical activity when asked why she paints : ” You draw or paint because you can’t help it, as one walks for walking sake and not just to get somewhere.” This “moment” in painting, which is ” a way of being someone else who is really oneself,” would be the expression of a must that the artist doesn’t seek to rationalize. Her painting MUST be… Thus it is!
