CHANTAL DURAND | SILICONE, GRAS, FOURRURE, PORCELAINE

CHANTAL DURAND | SILICONE, GRAS, FOURRURE, PORCELAINE

Room 2

Chantal Durand

SILICONE, GRAS, FOURRURE, PORCELAINE

EXHIBITION /
MARCH 4 TO APRIL 10, 2010

Among the multiple components indicative of the human body's material condition, the carnal dimension is a most evocative aspect, and also the one most affected by the passage of time. As an enveloping material skin cannot escape transformation, a phenomenon dreaded by many, but which remains essentially irreversible. This material body, with its inexorable finality, is the crux of Chantal Durand's sculptures. Above all, this work speaks to the materials, their tangible qualities and specific properties. In choosing elements that are rarely used in sculpture the artists engages the viewer in a primarily sensorial experience. 

Tactile perception is also the basis for an experiment with material combinations that gives rise to abstract objects, ranging from the silicone bag with its load of around 300 pounds of lard to the shapeless heap of furs and simulated skins. The casting, amalgamation and modeling procedures involve an active thought process throughout the production stages, i.e. through direct contact with the chosen materials. This is particularly underscored by the fact that these objects call both on our tactility and our gaze to take stock of their ephemerality. This is notably the case for the volume lying on the floor: the porous and stretchable envelope allows one to observe reactions to heat and gravity, in a manner that demonstrates our own organic and ephemeral state. Nevertheless, this way of working colours and textures so as to simulate a human epidermis, which is itself somewhat artificial (uniform tone, even surface), or of evoking our corporeality by way of an animal fur, plays on a certain burlesque character in which imperfection serves to rethink our own materiality and to accept it with humour.
 

Aseman Sabet [Trans by B.A.S.]