Scarlett Rouge: Astral Portraits and Earthly Remains

With Astral Portraits and Earthly Remains, Scarlett Rouge assembles, enshrines and elevates intangible pieces of herself, her friends and family, as well as figures of legend and myth, into richly resonant syncretic objects, tapestries and mixed-media sculptures. These conceptual ‘collages’ are realized through a practice based in processes of catharsis and intuition. Esoteric mysteries and subterranean currents flow through her as raindrops into the ocean, misting back up to the sky to fall again as rain, an endless cycle of transpiration and sublimation. The artist takes a sociological approach to the numinous. This is art that, like the most primordial of religions or sophisticated of philosophies, explores the eternal questions of Life, Death and Rebirth—and the living and learning done inbetween.

The Astral Portraits weave together Scarlett’s fascination with astrology, astronomy and the possibilities of cosmic identity into graphic appliqué tapestries. Reading star positions like a psychic alchemist, she sifts and sorts the uncovered aspects into bold ideograms in which Art Deco streamlines meet Japanese woodcuts with a surreal and phantastical result. A true visual dreamer, storyteller and acute observer, these Celestial investigations draw out the traits of each sitter according to their ascendant signs and unique personal story. One (Scorpio Rising, Scorpio Sun) is embodied as a warrior Kali, her duelling ruling planets both represented, with Pluto as her head and the severed Mars on a platter, as above an exploding volcano is crowned with a blooming Bird of Paradise. Another (Cancer Rising, Pisces Sun) levitates above the raging waves below as pagan skies shake with lighting. Scarlett’s own Astral Portrait (Cancer Rising, Virgo Sun) takes the form of a hand-knotted carpet, her lithe, Moon-headed form dancing among crying eyes, arms outspread, unafraid to embrace the wildly elemental Universe that radiates around her.