One can feel uplifted when first seeing Céline Ordioni’s work. Her most recent ongoing projects entitled It’s nothing personal encapsulate some of the feelings of contemporary early adulthood perfectly. The humorous light she shines on each of her chosen themes act as much needed a relief. She mostly focuses on bleak subjects such as loneliness, sex and dissatisfaction in the digital era, and the existential fear of the unknown.

Her work takes on many forms, sizes and mediums. It happens organically as the artist herself relocates and grows in whichever way her experiences guide her. Her art informs her personal life and vice versa. This is more evident in Céline’s abstract observationist practice, where she does abstract portraits of strangers in the street or at various events. This performative painting deciphers her very nuanced, yet completely unpretentious practice. The artist approaches the process of human connection candidly. Her blunt vulnerability, for example, can serve as a social catalyst during these interactions. The inherent awkwardness that resides in watching a stranger watch you for 30 seconds, is transformed into an extremely powerful experience. This is because it happens in an open and safe environment. 

Céline’s work is nuanced and unpretentious

Her interest in communicating and resonating with the people that experience her art, is also manifested in her attempt to eliminate the need for interpretation and other layered meaning making processes. Reminiscent of writer and activist Susan Sontag’s words, Céline meditates on the project of interpretation as a reactionary and stifling act.

”I like to spell it out […] I like to be overtly transparent.” She therefore aims to establish clear paths of communication between her creative context and her audience. 

That is not to say that her work deters you from bringing your own meaning and understanding to her work. She acknowledges the part that individual experiences play in the meaning making process. However, this transparency can contribute to creating art that is increasingly accessible.

Céline says, “It’s easy to hate what you don’t understand.”

Throughout It’s nothing personal, the insightful phrases she includes in her paintings are, as her title suggests, not just personal. Although her experiences are in some ways part of each of her work, the perceptive observations she makes are more along the lines of “the personal is political”. They are dense with feminist and other anti-bigotry connotations.  

images supplied by the artist

The spectrum of the mediums she works with is wide enough to include any new challenges that life may present her with. Although she enjoys working big, be it with her earlier sculptural work or her current mural paintings, she may also fit her work onto a napkin. She likes to create art that is “a timestamp of the moment.” Any actual physical, emotional or other restrictions are always taken into account. As a result, Céline moves with ease from one medium to another. At the same time it feels as though a certain “essence” of her work is maintained. This could simply be the feeling arising from the repeated use of the abstract style of her continuous line. It also, and more importantly, resides deep in her search for human connection, as a remedy for a deeper existential dread. 

written by Steffi Stouri