Rumored
to be in a Buddhist monastery, Robert Filliou was somewhere in the beautiful Dordogne River Valley in the South of France, Caydance recalled as she looked through the slide viewer at his Frozen Exhibition. Both reclusive and fertile in an art-making sense, Filliou was, as far as Caydance knew, still living.
Frozen Exhibition consisted of about 45 small photos and pieces of printed matter contained in a two-dimensional bowler hat that was first placed inside a plastic bag and frozen for ten years; then defrosted and exhibited. Was there decipherable meaning in the photographs? A reason that they could not be immediately exhibited? Were they always the same in every version of this Fluxus multiple? Or was she reading too much not only into this work but also into the images in the unopenable artists book on her studio table?
Keyed by recollection of the peaceful Dordogne River Valley, instead of confronting these questions, Caydance was remembering a late summer trip to the Russian River Valley and lunch on their deck with Cory and Tiara, two women artists, who lived together in a restored cabin on the outskirts of Guerneville.