The Animal Kingdom
Mammals part 1
NOMADE GALLERY
Exhibition project 2013/11/01- 2013/11/15
NOMADE GALLERY 杭州上城区复兴里街499号 (公车复兴路北口站-世纪联华前路口沿河入内500米)
On the cover skin drawing of the calf named «Lagune» from the birth register of calves, 1995 Register from the farm of the family Herve
on the right identity card of the caw «Lagune» from the birth register of calves, 1995 Register from the farm of the family Herve
ARTIST
Christelle HERVE (1986) is a french artist who grew up on the border between city and countryside. She lives now in China where she attends a PH.D Intermedia Art program in the China Academy of Art, in Hangzhou. She is interested by memory, identity and social concepts. Her artistic approach concerns the heritage of the peasant culture on the body as well the territory.
PROJECT
I propose to show in the space two art works.
Labour It is a sery of drawings which could be hang on the four walls of the space. Because the exhibition will happen in a gallery I would like to show different size of drawings from the art piece Labour. In that way it could make the hanging more dynamic. Beast It is an installation which could be settle in the space. It would be a chinese version of Beasts. It will be an herd of 15 hard clothes kneel down. The clothes will be ÂŤnongmingongÂť uniforms.
TEXT
In connection with a PH.D research on the Agrarian Identity, in the contemporary city of Shanghai, I suggest to exhibit two art pieces under the title of «Animal Kingdom», one would be an installation on the ground, the other one a series of drawings.
Beasts, The installation called Beasts, is a variation of another art piece already done in France, three years ago. About fifteen clothes of workers, from the sweeper of street in fluorescent orange suit with reflective strips, by way of the factory worker who wears a blue, red, green uniform to the clothes of workers of construction site which is often been composed of a linen pants accompany with a jacket of incomplete suit. All these clothes representing jobs and are occupied by a certain social category, here called in China: «nongminggong». These clothes-noticed from the Chinese modern cities, lived by bodies and then by other, whithout humanity, sex, origin, history... are the pillars of the giant, which only indicate their social class. On their knees, these clothes of workers stiffened, emptied of their contents as we prepare an animal for cooking it better, are the contemporary vestiges of the trade of the Men on the earth.
Labour, The series of drawings named Labour, is a current work begins more than a year in Hangzhou. Interested by the identity and so in various skins, colored, pure, tanned, old, new, injured... I decided to draw skins as we work on skins to make them become objects, exhibited. It means the skin lost her function because it extracted from the body it belonged. The skin is opened, quarted as a symbol of power of the Human on Animal. Thus this interests me to put these series of drawings in relations with the installation Beasts, questionning the law of the strongest. I do not give a speech animalist or ecological. I come from a farm where we taught you every animal, including the Human has his function, has his place. Cows for me were always a synonymic animal of maternal, certainly because they are mammals as the Human too. But also because it is the animal which fed, which made me grow up. The breeding of dairy cow was the most important salary of my parents and let them survive in front of many economics crisis. We always have to look after cows. The life in the farm was completely organize according to the rhythm of cows, milking twice a day, the inseminations, the calvings... I realized by working on these drawings, I naturally drawn three hours by days, in two phases, twice 1:30 am a day when I reproduced exactly this rtyhme of work of my parents in the farm. A regular work which allowed me during one year not to make me influenced by the working rhythm in Art field and in China which are irregular and stretchable.
PICTURES
Portrait of FĂŠerie, may 2010 detail of Beasts
Beasts, may 2010 sery of 5 sculptures, overalls, oranges tags, black marker, sugar 61*100*38mm workshop Lorient, France
Labour, february 2013 detail
Labour, february 2013 drawing 178*90cm Blue ballpoint pens mounted on Xuan paper Chilvarous Cantaloupe Commune Studio Shanghai, China
PHOTOMONTAGES
Beasts, october 2013
drawing of the installation
Beasts, october 2013 photomontage
sery of 15 sculptures, Nong Min Gong working uniforms 61*100*38mm each
Labour, 2012/2013 drawing of the installation in the space
Labour, 2012/2013 photomontage 9 drawings from the first sery, one drawing, 265*180cm from the second sery, four drawings, 178*90cm from the third sery, four drawings, 22,25*11,25cm blue, black, green, black ballpoint pens mounted on Xuan paper
The Animal Kingdom, Mammals, 2013
overview, photomontage of the installation and the drawings in the space
NOMADE GALLERY 杭州上城区复兴里街499号 (公车复兴路北口站-世纪联华前路口沿河入内500米)