My body of work explores various global environmental issues, aiming to raise awareness.
Nature is full of curiosities. My body of work aims to shed light on the natural designs in the frequently unnoticed creatures that inhabit our everyday life using figurative art. Whether it is the local ducks, the species of insects or the interaction between creatures, my art pieces aim to share these hidden and intriguing peculiarities within nature. The main focus of my exhibition and later focus on insects is due to their prevalence in the world but also because they are hidden and overlooked. Especially in Paris, being a metropolitan city with little greenery, people may not pay attention to the interesting fragments of nature surrounding them.
My works consist of a mix of 3D but predominantly 2D paintings. The 3D works depict moths and butterflies, using paper wire construction and paper mache for the delicate, thin wings and keeping them to a relatively accurate scale. The scale itself is also an important feature experimented with within my works as several of the 2D pieces contrast the small size of insects in reality to the art pieces which enlarge them, for example, Min-min zemi. With the 3D piece Aglais io I experimented with kinetic art, inspired by James Chedburn’s kinetic wire sculptures, it mimics the fluttering wings of butterflies. For the paintings, I have drawn a lot of inspiration from artists such as René Lalique and his use of insects and natural forms, Levon Biss’s close-up photography of insects and Jan van Kessel and Adolphe Millot’s scientific depiction of a variety of insects and have pursued displaying interesting forms found in insects in a manner to exhibit their small size, strange form and consequent beauty. The subject matter is mostly based on my own photographs of insects. Most pieces involve species outside of their own natural habitat or in one with visible human impact to express a question about humanity’s relationship with nature and arts. I also drew inspiration from stylised painting techniques, especially from Paul Cézanne’s still life paintings using defined blocks of colour, direct marks and impasto coming from using a palette knife to juxtapose the delicate and unseen reality of insects with a bolder style. It aims to convey the unconventional magnificence of insects as they too are inelegant but beautiful.