Agency of objects 2025
Agency of Objects, Open Studio 8116 solo exhibition, Cité internationale des arts, Marais, Paris (2-16 April 2025)
ONAVU (We have seen), Galerie Latuvu, Bages, France (July 2025)
For this body of work my visual research is mostly focused on objects, which evidence things exchanged or left behind by strangers, friends or acquaintances. Several narratives emerged and suggested stories and relationships about interrupted times and people in transit, about the brevity of life and the preciousness of reciprocity; mediated through objects.
Overview of the installation at Cité internationale des arts, Marais, Paris:
This section contains details of the three installation walls:
Installation 1: Agency of Objects, Cité internationale des arts, Paris.
The concepts emerged through observation of discarded tools, damaged by the wild-fires of 2017 in Portugal. The series of small drawings are site-specific and metaphoric. They speak of transience, as the ink was made from disintegrating walnut husks by the artist, Celia de Villers, on the same site as the walnut tree, the fire and the ruined, rusty tools.
Objects are both things of comfort and discomfort. Living on this site in Paris where artists come and go, staying here only temporarily, I have also become aware and very moved by the refugees of the city. The elongated structure of the Citè Internationale des arts building offers a roof over the refugees as they pitch their tents every evening, just to dismantle them every morning.
Installation 2: Agency of Objects, Cité internationale des arts, Paris.
The grouping of of two- and three-dimensional works present abstract objects on stilted structures. The three-dimensional objects express the action of shoveling or chopping, hammering, splitting and cleaving to further contemplate the context of alteration. Working with food packaging suggested a continuation of the cycle that started with implements used to work the land. The restructured 3D sketches became more animated and was further developed through mixed media and acrylic paintings.
Installation 3: Agency of Objects, Cité internationale des arts, Paris.
From the alienation one experiences when you arrive at the Citè, the Open Studio event marks the end of each artist’s stay. We, and our objects, are all here in a temporary state in various stages of belonging and not belonging.
The details below were part of a wall of sketches of observation, planning and thinking through the agency of stuff as small markers of time.
Marketing and opening events
Full artist's statement:
I spent the three-month art residency in Europe between Spain, Portugal and France. Most of this time was spent in Paris at the Cité internationale des arts, in the Marais district. My visual research focused mostly on objects, which evidence things exchanged or left behind by strangers, friends or acquaintances. Several narratives emerged and suggested stories and relationships about interrupted times and people in transit, about the brevity of life and the preciousness of reciprocity; mediated through objects.
The concepts emerged through observation of discarded tools, damaged by the wild-fires of 2017 in Portugal. The series of small drawings are site-specific and metaphoric. They speak of transience, as the ink was made from disintegrating walnut husks by the artist, Celia de Villers, on the same site as the walnut tree, the fire and the ruined, rusty tools.
I then created three-dimensional objects in my search to express the action of shoveling or chopping, hammering, splitting and cleaving to further contemplate the context of alteration. In flattening and reshaping several cardboard food packages, the materials suggested a continuation of the cycle that started with being bound to earth - observing implements used to work the land. The restructured 3D sketches became more animated and was further developed through mixed media and acrylic paintings.
Objects are both things of comfort and discomfort. Living on this site in Paris where artists come and go, staying here only temporarily, I have also become aware and very moved by the refugees of the city. The elongated structure of the Citè Internationale des arts building offers a roof over the refugees as they pitch their tents every evening, just to dismantle them every morning.
From the alienation one experiences when you arrive at the Citè, to the close association with the nomadic group of artists, the Open Studio event marks the end of each artist’s residency. We, and our objects, are all here in a temporary state in various stages of belonging and not belonging.