adrift
adrift, 2023, series of one hundred drawing impressions, charcoal, ink, drypoint on ream of Chinese paper, 34 x 68.
I propose an in-depth journey on a ream of Chinese paper with very fine fibers, particularly reactive to humidity. Water and ink pass through the layers, infiltrate the fibers, and diffuse from one sheet to the next, so that each intervention affects several surfaces simultaneously. When I lift the sheets one by one, each already appears marked by what has passed through it. Before any direct intervention, they display imprints, stains, and areas of deposit, forming a latent landscape resulting from the circulation of water and ink through the material. Each sheet becomes almost a monotype. I intervene progressively on these surfaces by successively reintroducing water, ink, and charcoal dust, which I sprinkle onto the still-damp paper. These additions reactivate the internal circulations, mingling with the areas of deposit. The drawing appears less as a constructed image than as a series of material displacements, transfers, and sedimentations. A final intervention with the drypoint needle pricks this already-perforated material, revealing the swellings, reliefs, and blisters resulting from the entire process.
What interests me is precisely this moment when the paper ceases to be a mere support and becomes an active material transformed by water and ink. The work then consists of accompanying the transformations of the material rather than constraining them. The viewer is not looking at a static image but at a drawing inseparable from a living process, where the material acts like an epidermis, where the traces and gestures remain legible.
Interview conducted by Olympe Le Touze and Louis Jn, videographers
on the occasion of Nautil'Art, Halle aux Toiles, Rouen, 2023