I Call it, Fish

40″ x 30″ x 1.5″
Mixed media: acrylic on birch panel with dimensional elements in wire.

The horizontal piece “I Call It Fish” (2025) demonstrates how Côté’s titles often function as invitations rather than declarations. The composition is dominated by a deep black field interrupted by red arcs, a pale wedge, and a small yellow form that reads like a signal or a buoy. On one side, thin elements extend outward like whiskers or antennae. On another, a cluster of small protrusions punctuates a pale area, producing a tactile rhythm. The “fish” is not an illustrated creature; it is a perceptual possibility. The painting offers a set of cues and allows the viewer’s imagination to complete the association. This is crucial. Côté’s work does not impose iconography. It activates it. It treats representation as something that emerges in the viewer’s mind as a response to form. In doing so, it relocates meaning from the object alone to the interaction between object and observer. The fish is not in the panel; it is in the relational space of looking.