SOME CONCRETE ABSTRACTION IN A VIRTUAL GALLERY
Here is my latest series of abstract paintings showcased virtually in a 3D gallery!
Modeling, rendering, video editing and music by Mina Pêcheux
THE GENESIS OF MY SERIES
A year ago, I was looking for new inspirations for my work when I received an impromptu message in my mailbox: a handwritten letter annotating an excerpt of Bachelard's "Earth and Reveries of Repose". My kind neighbour had spotted a few sentences that she thought echoed with my paintings. I wandered from her daydreams to Bachelard's and rediscovered his work in a new light. His "Poetics of Space", among other books, put my feelings into words. It was all coming together at the right time. From Bachelard to Deleuze, via the statements of the Bokujinkai, I spent the summer of 2020 reading and making connections between what was becoming obvious.
My paintings became haunted by an imaginary nest, revolving around its empty center, a negative space as full of life as an egg. It was like a secret hidden by abstraction but exposed in plain view. A disconcerting paradox since I’d always refused to give a title to my paintings to avoid influencing the imagination of the viewer.
After working in this direction for several months, I realized that even if I made variations of it as a long-loved and many-times calligraphed letter, I’d eventually go around in circles, no pun intended.
One day, during my daily research, I came across, once again, the parietal and cave arts. I decided to follow this path for a few weeks. Cavern ochres and the eargerness for earth started to permeate my dreams.
As I did not wish to use colored paints in my creative process, I went for walnut stain to gradually darken my canvases. I decided to explicitly show the evolution of this new palette by making 7 backgrounds, from satin white to matte black, with 5 in-between shades of brown.
I eventually laid down my shiny black “nests” on these well-prepared backgrounds, each of them finding its place in the various tones; each of them reflecting the world in its own way.
SHOWING MY SERIEs
Because I don’t have the space to exhibit 7 100cm x 100cm paintings all at once, I quickly started to wonder about how to showcase them. A simple alignment in a corridor was not to my taste. As virtual reality allows you to imagine anything, I decided to design a dedicated room for the series.
This part of the project was realized as a duo with Mina Pêcheux for all the technical side (3D and video editing). I thus encourage you to continue this adventure with the article she wrote on this topic (clic).
The video at the beginning of this post is our end result. I hope you enjoyed it (:
