Jackie Matisse: Kite Time

Curator: Gill Eatherley

Kite Time will grace Arter’s high and low, light and dark spaces where Jackie Matisse’s kites can reveal themselves for the very first time in all their splendour indoors, as they fly all the way down from head to tail. “Sea Tails Performances”, which will take place at Arter between 22 and 26 May 2024 on the occasion of the exhibition, will feature movement design and direction by Polly Motley, alongside video and live image design by Molly Davies.

Jackie Matisse (1931–2021) flew her signature kites in the skies over Istanbul almost half a century ago during a trip in 1976. It must not have even crossed the artist’s mind in those days that the Rainbow [Arc-en-Ciel, 1983] kites, which today appear in vivid colours inside the front windows of the Arter building, would invite passers-by to come in and explore the exhibition Kite Time.

Born into a family with a profound artistic heritage, Jackie Matisse seems to have paid no heed to her grandfather Henri Matisse’s advice from 1950, when he drew his three grandchildren on the ceiling of his apartment in Nice, France on the occasion of his 80th birthday: “Don’t become an artist if you can do anything else. It is too difficult a road”. Jackie Matisse’s journey began in 1962 when she accidentally lost a kite she had acquired among the trees in a forest – a fortuitous event which had a significant impact on her artistic path. Drawing upon the delicate skills she also honed from assisting Marcel Duchamp to assemble his portable miniature monograph Box in a Valise [Boîte-en-valise] between 1959 and 1968, Jackie Matisse undertook a creative odyssey that spanned mediums and continents through clouds, underwater, across paper, wood and cloth surfaces, by using crayons and brushes. She never stopped cutting, glueing, knotting, folding, sewing, assembling, printing, tying, drawing, sorting, collecting, soldering, and ultimately flying her kites, which she perceived as a dynamic form capable of setting art in motion across the world. 

The exhibition Kite Time graces Arter’s high and low, light and dark spaces where Jackie Matisse’s kites can reveal themselves for the very first time in all their splendour indoors, as they fly all the way down from head to tail. The front windows show the Rainbow [Arc-en-Ciel] kites with their square heads. Wafting down the atrium, Black-and-White Kites (1989) contrast with the multi-coloured Tangled Tails (1977) that disappear right down into the depths. Taking a side place in plain silk, hang Ahmedabad Silks [Ahmedabad Soie, 1981]. Opposite these lines of striking colours is a white wall filled with light and space to hang 9 Lines and Reflections (1986), suspended aluminium shapes made for her collaboration with David Tudor. 

A machine, positioned on the wall at the far end of the entrance corridor in Arter’s Gallery -1, turns a paper tail in an endless moving loop of colour from ceiling to floor, accompanied by soft creaking and swooshing sounds. Just nearby, presented on shelves, are Bottled Dreams [Rêves en Bouteille, 1981], fragments of kites made of found materials that swim and float in the water in different-sized bottles. As visitors enter the darkened gallery space, they encounter Sea Tails (1983), a video captured by Molly Davies, with Jackie Matisse flying her kites underwater and David Tudor recording sounds from the ocean floor. Kites featured in the video are suspended across the ceiling as if they were coming out of the water. 

On the way to the lower levels, Kite Time invites visitors to cast their gaze upward once more, where they will discover numerous small kites titled Flying Flea Circus [Poux du Ciel, 1979] made of spinnaker cloth fixed across a net, creating the impression of a giant mosaic. 

Sea Tails Performances, scheduled to take place at Arter between 22–26 May 2024 on the occasion of Jackie Matisse’s Kite Time exhibition will feature movement design and direction by Polly Motley and video and live image design by Molly Davies. 

Please click here for further information about the performance.

Visit here for further information on Arter’s programme. Press contact: Senem Çelikörslü, senemc [​at​] arter.org.tr.