BONES (2016-2018)
Origins of the Bones Series
2012 marked the year I got my bachelor degree, it was the end of my student life. This was the year in which I was expected to start a responsible adult life, to conform to normality. It rather ended up being a harsh but decisive moment in my life, an awkward and liberating Big Bang: A reconsideration of my social, regional and deeply rooted family values, a troubled identity quest and a tormented exploration. It was destructive phase where everything in my way turns into ashes, to nourish the expansion. I came into conflict with opposition. I destroyed and tore down to better reconstruct.
In 2013, I decided to embrace who I really was: An artist.
It was my first renaissance. I could no longer feel docile and alienated. I would no longer remain silent or censored. As I started my artist journey, my art was first brutal and hard: sensory deprivation performances, exploration of physical and psychological endurance, imposing limiting constraint upon myself. I was constantly putting myself to the test, relentlessly and radically.
Until the end of 2015, my work was mainly fuelled by internal and external violence, along with a burning ambition to succeed, an unquenchable thirst to redefine my identity, and a vital need to prove my worth to anyone who would listen. Today, I see this 3-year period as a necessary transition.
2016 marked my first impulse towards real ascension. Stability, self-control, active awareness, a more comfortable and mindful way of living. Surprisingly, this new healthy balance destabilized me in my artistic practice. I suddenly felt empty. I felt that I had nothing substantial to express anymore. I had lost that adolescent source of inspiration that was rooted in rebellion and self-flagellation.
I do not want to suffer to create.
This idea torments and brings me back to the unnecessary psychological state I left behind. I no longer want to raze; I now want to protect, elevate, build ... but what? Castles, towers, lighthouses. Something that illuminates or magnifies. Something inspiring, glowing, radiant. I want to celebrate the human being, the human experience, the existence that shelters us and all that it contains.
The Bones series was taking root.
Inspiration came suddenly while reading about the spine’s symbolism. I decided to actively explore the skeleton to better understand it. I am fascinated by its balance, its symmetry, its forms, its paradoxes and its symbolic content. In the beginning, I painted without questioning myself. I allowed myself to create freely without the need to justify. My intention was simple: to create bright, colorful and vibrant anatomical representations that honor and glorify the human body. I discovered the body as a garden of sculptures, an architecture that contains the infinite, which shelter consciousness. This temple is infinitely complex, and Bones celebrates it.
Bones #2
September 13th, 2016, I inaugurated the first Bones exhibition in Montreal. Among the 13 paintings on display, a fascinating one represented a huge spine on an 8 feet canvas. It gave me the spiritual experience I was seeking. Its dimensions impressed me, and I understood that part of the outstanding and divine feeling that I perceived was due to the superiority of proportions in comparison to my own body. The painting "Debout #2" (meaning: Standing #2) is a cornerstone of the series’ evolution.
Then, while searching for the next images, I wanted to create highly complex structures using narratives that go beyond the simple representation of bones. Now, human bones are not only the subject of the artwork but rather, an inherent part of the medium, a raw material to work with, as clay would be for a sculptor.
I explored a wide variety of themes: romantic dialog, desire for control, contemplation of death, psychological repression, hope, and vitality. I have found inspiring tools and insights in Carl G. Jung's study of "depth psychology" as well as his understanding of human archetypes in the collective unconscious.
The paintings and installations presented here will, I hope, raise more questions than offer responses. The stories evoked have indeed found their echo in my past and present personal life, but the artworks have been created with modesty to allow the observers get their own perception and experience of the work, rather than imposing them mine.
2012 marked the year I got my bachelor degree, it was the end of my student life. This was the year in which I was expected to start a responsible adult life, to conform to normality. It rather ended up being a harsh but decisive moment in my life, an awkward and liberating Big Bang: A reconsideration of my social, regional and deeply rooted family values, a troubled identity quest and a tormented exploration. It was destructive phase where everything in my way turns into ashes, to nourish the expansion. I came into conflict with opposition. I destroyed and tore down to better reconstruct.
In 2013, I decided to embrace who I really was: An artist.
It was my first renaissance. I could no longer feel docile and alienated. I would no longer remain silent or censored. As I started my artist journey, my art was first brutal and hard: sensory deprivation performances, exploration of physical and psychological endurance, imposing limiting constraint upon myself. I was constantly putting myself to the test, relentlessly and radically.
Until the end of 2015, my work was mainly fuelled by internal and external violence, along with a burning ambition to succeed, an unquenchable thirst to redefine my identity, and a vital need to prove my worth to anyone who would listen. Today, I see this 3-year period as a necessary transition.
2016 marked my first impulse towards real ascension. Stability, self-control, active awareness, a more comfortable and mindful way of living. Surprisingly, this new healthy balance destabilized me in my artistic practice. I suddenly felt empty. I felt that I had nothing substantial to express anymore. I had lost that adolescent source of inspiration that was rooted in rebellion and self-flagellation.
I do not want to suffer to create.
This idea torments and brings me back to the unnecessary psychological state I left behind. I no longer want to raze; I now want to protect, elevate, build ... but what? Castles, towers, lighthouses. Something that illuminates or magnifies. Something inspiring, glowing, radiant. I want to celebrate the human being, the human experience, the existence that shelters us and all that it contains.
The Bones series was taking root.
Inspiration came suddenly while reading about the spine’s symbolism. I decided to actively explore the skeleton to better understand it. I am fascinated by its balance, its symmetry, its forms, its paradoxes and its symbolic content. In the beginning, I painted without questioning myself. I allowed myself to create freely without the need to justify. My intention was simple: to create bright, colorful and vibrant anatomical representations that honor and glorify the human body. I discovered the body as a garden of sculptures, an architecture that contains the infinite, which shelter consciousness. This temple is infinitely complex, and Bones celebrates it.
Bones #2
September 13th, 2016, I inaugurated the first Bones exhibition in Montreal. Among the 13 paintings on display, a fascinating one represented a huge spine on an 8 feet canvas. It gave me the spiritual experience I was seeking. Its dimensions impressed me, and I understood that part of the outstanding and divine feeling that I perceived was due to the superiority of proportions in comparison to my own body. The painting "Debout #2" (meaning: Standing #2) is a cornerstone of the series’ evolution.
Then, while searching for the next images, I wanted to create highly complex structures using narratives that go beyond the simple representation of bones. Now, human bones are not only the subject of the artwork but rather, an inherent part of the medium, a raw material to work with, as clay would be for a sculptor.
I explored a wide variety of themes: romantic dialog, desire for control, contemplation of death, psychological repression, hope, and vitality. I have found inspiring tools and insights in Carl G. Jung's study of "depth psychology" as well as his understanding of human archetypes in the collective unconscious.
The paintings and installations presented here will, I hope, raise more questions than offer responses. The stories evoked have indeed found their echo in my past and present personal life, but the artworks have been created with modesty to allow the observers get their own perception and experience of the work, rather than imposing them mine.