Fragments and Fractals

Lindsay Caldicott’s work is so brilliant that it momentarily silences dichotomies between art brut and contemporary art. Lindsay Caldicott’s tragic fate, in the absence of providing a framework for interpreting her work, prompts us nonetheless to search for the substance of her art, to attempt to understand its very essence.
At first glance, what is striking is the way in which her collages are structured into geometric ensembles interspersed with mishaps, shapes that become obsessively intertwined and repetitive. However, in Lindsay Caldicott’s works, there is a chromatic harmony that is rarely in doubt, ranging from grey to sanguine and from russett toflesh-coloured tones. For flesh is the prima materia of this fractal universe.
It then becomes clear that these lineaments are made primarily from a myriad of x-ray fragments, cut with a scalpel and assembled with the utmost surgical precision.

The solo show entitled Fragments and Fractals takes a look back at Lindsay Caldicott’s very particular work, somewhere between geometric abstraction and figurative fragments.Lindsay Caldicott trained as a therapeutic radiography technician at the age of 16. She worked in the x-ray department of a Dutch hospital for a few years before taking a break in her career and successfully studying Fine Arts at Middlesex Polytechnic in London.
She suffered from severe psychological issues due to a distressing childhood and succeeded in coping with them until 1990, when a severe episode forced her to leave her job. She then spent most of the next 24 years in a psychiatric hospital, until her death in 2014. Christian Berst discovered her work in 2016 and organised her first solo exhibition in Paris in 2019.

Christian berst art brut

The gallery Chrisitian Berst shows since 2005 that art brut cannot be confined neither in a period of time nor in a geographical perimeter not even in a formal spectrum. What is at stake here is rather the notion of individual mythology, dear to Harald Szeemann. By putting its passion at the service of creators off the beaten track, whether they are “classics” already recognized by museums and art collections or contemporary discoveries destined to recognition by the art world, the
gallery strives, through its exhibitions and publications, to introduce an ever-growing public to the mysteries of art brut.

Christian Berst Art Brut, 3-5 passage des Gravilliers — 75003 Paris, France

www.christianberst.com