The exhibition ‘The Smoken Ridge’ is a chance to look again at the graphic work of Alan Fertil (1982, Quimper - 2015, Brussels). A graduate of the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts (National School of Fine Arts) in Paris, he spent his childhood and student days in Brittany, the United States and England. At the end of his course, he settled in Berlin then in Brussels in 2009 where he co-founded the collective known as ‘The Ister’, an association bringing together artists, exhibition curators and people working in art, with the aim of promoting young creativity. At that time Alan Fertil was known for his joint work with Damien Teixidor, focussed on street furniture, skateboard culture and D-I-Y. The pair exhibited in France at MAMO – Centre d’Art de la Cité Radieuse in Marseille, the 40mcube art centre in Rennes and in Brussels at MAAC, Maison d’Art Actuel des Chartreux. At the same time Alan Fertil was developing drawing which has never really been exhibited and is largely unknown. This part of his work was the subject of a book entitled ‘Alan Fertil, Drawings, Sketches and Notes’, recently published by Zéro2 with the support of the Antoine de Galbert Foundation, 40mcube and Passerelle.

Alan Fertil’s constant travelling between English- and French-speaking countries and his taste for literature permeate his works in which he includes many texts and words, including poetry, slogans and reflections. His works are in turn methodical and sketchy, showing the construction of the space surrounding us as well as an evolving chaos. His drawings are marked by a use of charcoal and graphite, giving them a dark and obscure depth. We are present at the construction of a unique universe, the creation of a world conceived in the mind of the artist. The last series by Alan Fertil is entitled ‘Ether Triumph’, evoking both the primordial Greek divinity ‘Aether’ and the term ‘ether’ from pre-Einstein physics (before 1905). The definition of ether seems in harmony with the feelings and settings of the artist’s drawings. In astronomy, it meant the fine fluid that was supposed to fill the space beyond the earth’s atmosphere, whereas in physics, ether was a hypothetical milieu that was extremely tenuous and elastic, found universally in both the void and in matter. Writing about this series, Bitsy Knox says that “matter vibrates enthusiastically, it circulates and remains contained, at both celestial and molecular scales. Great theories are freely deployed; this is science under the influence of intuition.”

The exhibition title, ‘The Smoken Ridge’, is taken from a work by the artist. It evokes his reflections inspired by science just as much as an interest in the organic and in landscape. Although many of his works demonstrate total abstraction, being inspired by space and astronomy, some reveal more prosaic attachments, more rooted in ‘reality’, using the vocabulary of botany and anatomy. So, tongues are alongside hands inspired by leaves, and constructions recall the famous Atomium in Brussels.

In a programme note, Alan Fertil wrote, “All shapes are of equal value, none deserves any special attention because none is independent of the others.”