Va(r)nishings
Works
Nothing we have spoken of is less natural, less sensual for the body, than materials that are icy and crackling, sharp and cold : plastics. Nothing is less of a caress than the touch of a plastic tarp, nothing less comforting than plastic packaging.
Here, the wandering eye comes to rest, with a different sort of pleasure : a sort of rigorous and limitless geometry, that we can call « pli glacé » – glossy folds. .
The rules of folding apply to these industrial materials, and indeed they do so in an exceedingly strict manner. The result is a composition that sometimes recalls gothic imagery. Of course, the points that cap these folds are not soft to the eye, but the perfectly rounded waves are an unexpected pleasure to behold. .
There is another kind of magic at work here : polishing pushed to the extreme, with a French varnish finish making the resulting surface reflect light, which summons the fancy that it would be pleasing to the touch. .
There is a great deal of pleasure in this kind of work, where the finishing (sanding, polishing, varnishing) is like so many caresses. To that I might add the many hours spent varnishing in the happy fumes of alcohol and lacquer vapours that bathe the studio. Let us wager that these sculptures have captured something of this happy atmosphere on their gleaming surfaces, and that the viewer will enjoy a bit of that bright shiny feeling too. .