Lou Masduraud
Interview by Aleï journal
Lou Masduraud is presented at A.Romy Gallery at the occasion of Liste Art Fair Basel
from the 12th to the 18th of June 2023
How would you define your practice ?
I am mostly working with sculpture and installation, creating phantasmagorical worlds which are alternatives to dominant realities, underlying their relations of power and desire. I practice craft technics such as ceramic, bronze casting, stone carving..
What are the main themes in your work ?
I am turning collective and normative habits into counter narrative objects. I have been working since a few years on three main ongoing projects: a critical research on public fountains as a political tool, an evolutionary project of anatomical fictions as anthropo-excentic living systems, and a series of basement windows as symbolic doors to marginal realities.
For this exhibition I‘ve produced a new series of «escape plans», those basement windows like the ones we see in the streets that lead to underground spaces. I love to think about them as doors leading to secret worlds and spaces for freedom and emancipation.
What is your process of work, do you have a recurrent creative schema, and do you create your art pieces following a path ?
Since five years I have been working within the frame of these three ongoing sculptural series.
I recently built my own foundry, I melt bronze myself and this DIY process affects the works.
What are your influences and references ?
I read a lot of biographies and autofictions written by women. Reading these lives and these stories of emancipation through the experience of life helps me to create my sculpture.
Lou Masduraud (b. 1990, Montpellier) lives and works in Geneva. In her work, she analyses, modifies and stages collective and normative habits in such a way as to expose the relations of power and desire that underlie them. Combining sculpture and installations in her formal vocabulary, both grotesque and poetic, the artist creates phantasmagorical worlds which are alternatives to dominant realities, depicting this transfiguration of the everyday as an initial form of emancipation. For a few years now, she has been working simultaneously on 3 mains ongoing projects: a critical research on public fountains, an evolutionary project of constrained anatomy and escape plans, a series of basement windows.
ESCAPE PLAN (FLORAL), 2023, Painted wood, textiles, resin epoxy, cotton wire, 40x90x3 cm — SPIT KISS, 2022, Carrara marble, tuff, quartz, crystal, amethyst, serpentine, agate, carnelian, mala- chite, oyster pearls, glass pearls, bones, enamelled steel, pumping system, water 1, 10 x 110 x 64 cm — ESCAPE PLAN (ACID 2), 2023, Painted wood, 40x70x3 cm — ESCAPE PLAN (SECRETS), 2023, Painted wood, textiles, cotton wire, 40x90x3 cm — ESCAPE PLAN (ROMANCE), 2023, Painted wood, hairpin, 40x70x3 cm — ESCAPE PLAN (GLITCH 1), 2023, Bronze, pearls, wire, 40x70x3 cm — ESCAPE PLAN (ACID 3), 2023, Painted wood, 40x90x3 cm — ESCAPE PLAN (PEARL GRID), 2023, Painted wood, oyster pearls, wire, 40x70x3 cm — ESCAPE PLAN (NAVEL), 2023, Bronze, piercing, 25x40 cm — ESCAPE PLAN (CLASSIC), 2023, Painted wood, textile, 40x90x3 cm — ESCAPE PLAN (MINERAL), 2023, Painted wood, resin, amethyst, pearl, pin, 40x70x3 cm — ESCAPE PLAN (THE SCREAM), 2023, Bronze, pearls, 25x40 cm
Lou Masduraud
Interview by Aleï journal
Lou Masduraud is presented at A.Romy Gallery at the occasion of Liste Art Fair Basel
from the 12th to the 18th of June 2023
How would you define your practice ?
I am mostly working with sculpture and installation, creating phantasmagorical worlds which are alternatives to dominant realities, underlying their relations of power and desire. I practice craft technics such as ceramic, bronze casting, stone carving..
What are the main themes in your work ?
I am turning collective and normative habits into counter narrative objects. I have been working since a few years on three main ongoing projects: a critical research on public fountains as a political tool, an evolutionary project of anatomical fictions as anthropo-excentic living systems, and a series of basement windows as symbolic doors to marginal realities.
For this exhibition I‘ve produced a new series of «escape plans», those basement windows like the ones we see in the streets that lead to underground spaces. I love to think about them as doors leading to secret worlds and spaces for freedom and emancipation.
What is your process of work, do you have a recurrent creative schema, and do you create your art pieces following a path ?
Since five years I have been working within the frame of these three ongoing sculptural series.
I recently built my own foundry, I melt bronze myself and this DIY process affects the works.
What are your influences and references ?
I read a lot of biographies and autofictions written by women. Reading these lives and these stories of emancipation through the experience of life helps me to create my sculpture.
Lou Masduraud (b. 1990, Montpellier) lives and works in Geneva. In her work, she analyses, modifies and stages collective and normative habits in such a way as to expose the relations of power and desire that underlie them. Combining sculpture and installations in her formal vocabulary, both grotesque and poetic, the artist creates phantasmagorical worlds which are alternatives to dominant realities, depicting this transfiguration of the everyday as an initial form of emancipation. For a few years now, she has been working simultaneously on 3 mains ongoing projects: a critical research on public fountains, an evolutionary project of constrained anatomy and escape plans, a series of basement windows.
ESCAPE PLAN (FLORAL), 2023, Painted wood, textiles, resin epoxy, cotton wire, 40x90x3 cm — SPIT KISS, 2022, Carrara marble, tuff, quartz, crystal, amethyst, serpentine, agate, carnelian, mala- chite, oyster pearls, glass pearls, bones, enamelled steel, pumping system, water 1, 10 x 110 x 64 cm — ESCAPE PLAN (ACID 2), 2023, Painted wood, 40x70x3 cm — ESCAPE PLAN (SECRETS), 2023, Painted wood, textiles, cotton wire, 40x90x3 cm — ESCAPE PLAN (ROMANCE), 2023, Painted wood, hairpin, 40x70x3 cm — ESCAPE PLAN (GLITCH 1), 2023, Bronze, pearls, wire, 40x70x3 cm — ESCAPE PLAN (ACID 3), 2023, Painted wood, 40x90x3 cm — ESCAPE PLAN (PEARL GRID), 2023, Painted wood, oyster pearls, wire, 40x70x3 cm — ESCAPE PLAN (NAVEL), 2023, Bronze, piercing, 25x40 cm — ESCAPE PLAN (CLASSIC), 2023, Painted wood, textile, 40x90x3 cm — ESCAPE PLAN (MINERAL), 2023, Painted wood, resin, amethyst, pearl, pin, 40x70x3 cm — ESCAPE PLAN (THE SCREAM), 2023, Bronze, pearls, 25x40 cm
