Gaspard
The body of my work explores the structure of the human figure, more explicitly anatomy and poses. However, my first artworks looked at the structure of Paris, objects, details and structure in nature such as with the construction of a cobweb, a butterfly wing, and architecture. These details led me on to exploring anatomical structure more closely. Many of my pieces were inspired by life drawing and by my own photographs of figures. My artworks include drawings, paintings, and reliefs using ceramics, while taking a closer look at the interior composition of the human body.
This exhibition revolves around three pieces; Nuances_anatomique, Bizarre, and Ciao, Inertia!. Nuances_anatomique which are inspired from some of Michelangelo’s anatomical research drawings and by Kuniyoshi Utagawa’s woodblock prints, relating to the skeletal and muscular systems of human composition. Bizarre was produced using a more pop-art approach, taking inspiration mainly from Andy Warhol’s use of saturated colors, repetition and placement of poses. It portrays three figures against a building structure. Ciao, Inertia!, takes inspiration from Michelangelo’s use of anatomy, and from Shintaro Kago’s way of dissecting the human body to only show specific parts of the human anatomical structure. My work also contains life drawings and a collage in which I have carefully observed light and poses.
My exhibition is set up on two parallel walls, dividing it into two parts. Each wall has a focal point. The first wall of my exhibition, being the first part of it that is seen when entering my given space, highlights my large scale painting Bizarre and by placing my black and white, desaturated and smaller pieces around it creates a contrast and a focal point on the large piece. The second part of my exhibition is an L shape panel, in contrast to the first part of my exhibition, the work on this side of it has been placed in a more spread and wider manner, by alternating between small and larger pieces. The pieces of this second wall have been arranged following colors and sizes, in order to balance out the colors throughout my exhibition. The first piece on this wall is Nuances_anatomique has been placed next to the relief piece that I have produced alongside with a collage I have made from a life drawing class. Next was another of my key pieces, being Ciao, Inertia!, which was placed on a panel of its own next to a series of life drawings showing both predominant use of the color green. I have placed those two works together in order to consolidate colors and to separate it from my first wall which contains entirely different colors. The first part of my exhibition illustrates this research of structure in a broader way whilst the second part of my exhibition concentrates on the structure of the human body by looking at poses, and the skeletal and muscular systems of the body.
The exhibition in its whole conveys a lot of different emotions through the use of poses, whether they are positive, negative or neutral. I have done this to show emotions without necessarily having to show facial expressions which are often used to display such feelings. My entire exhibition conveys mixed emotions, most of the time neutral, displaying a state of apathy and calm. Which can be experienced by the audience through the curation and displaying of the pieces.
Lighting (January 2023)
Black paper, chalk
39 x 52 cm
Lighting is a piece made during a life drawing session, the goal of the exercise was to only portray the lights and nothing else. This piece made using chiaroscuro was produced while taking Caravaggio as an inspiration, displaying the human anatomy through the strong contrasts of shadows and lights. This piece has contributed to my understanding of anatomy and shades as I really had to continuously observe the model in order to understand why and when the lighting would begin and end.