Un coup de pouce (2020)

Artist’s Note

The French expression un coup de pouce conjures a tender force: the shock of a blow, un coup, in concert with the inner digit of a human hand, un pouce. Its uncanny charm brims with positive intent. While translations differ in context and across cultures, I find that the English turn of phrase "a nudge in the right direction" captures the spirit of the original. This gentle call to arms from our better angels lends comfort to the strange. In moments of transition, we often yearn for such nudges; do they come from ourselves, our companions, or something beyond us?

In a play of the sacred and profane, this collage offers a response in between. Fragments from El Greco’s “The Assumption of the Virgin” sourced from the vinyl insert of Sir Thomas Beecham’s reading of Handel’s Messiah; a secondhand astronomy textbook’s reproduction of NASA’s “Hubble Ultra Deep Field”; and nondescript advertisements from a decade-old issue of Money Magazine come together not to suggest the passage from one state to another, but instead to propose a moment of contemplation within them. Suspended in space, reaching upwards and out, may we reap the bounty of hope and bask in our abundance.