Elements
In Taoist alchemical practice, the universe is composed of five essential elements: fire, water, earth, metal, and wood. These elements extend beyond the material, structuring systems of knowledge across astrology, medicine, divination, and philosophy. Gaston Bachelard’s elemental essays explore their intimate connection to the human psyche and imagination. Consciousness itself can be understood as a shifting constellation of images, texts, emotions, and sounds—intertwined in ways both visible and hidden. My BFA diploma exhibition at ENSA Bourges, set within a former convent, responds to this cosmology. Five walls of paintings, drawings, and textiles correspond to the five elements, forming an immersive environment imagined as the interior of an alchemical vessel. Within this space, transformation, formation, and decay occur simultaneously. Each wall acts as a “living painting,” shaped by a specific moment in time and space.
Walden lake
I work with the sun, the rain, the fallen leaves, the rotten tree branches, wild berries from spring, brilliant dandelions from summer, forest mushrooms from autumn, acorns from winter. I dream about the Walden lake, in April, May, June, October, January. From first rainfall to last freeze.
the house
of words
Words are condensations of time, words are gates of our minds, they kept us sane yet prisoned. Words are not truth, words are not lies, words are not simply forms, forms are not forms either.
shapes of
the night
Natural dye made from nettle, lichen, acorns and food waste, dye based ink, wood ashes from last winter, vinegar, bleach, cotton sewing thread, silk embroidery thread, linen cloth from Thailand, cotton sheet from thrift store in Burgundy. Tainted, contaminated, overlapped, intertwined, covered up, revealed, these are the shapes of the night.
Burgundy variations
Series of paintings document my daily walk along the canal of burgundy, near Tonnerre in France.
Bourges variations
Series of paintings document my daily walk in the Marrais de Bourges. I compose them as a musician compose variations on the same musical theme. The landscape change, people change, the painting format repeats.
Memory
Nature is water, water is memory, memory is cloud, cloud is rain, rain is grass leaves, grass leaves are sperms of masturbation dried up on the stomach of Walt Whitman, Walt Whitman is the second elk tree on the left of Walden, Walden is the goat hair brush used by Zhu Da, Zhu Da is cobalt violet, cobalt violet is Monet’s straw hat, Monet’s straw hat is the tail of Leda, Leda is the cry of the last dandelion at the end of path to home.
Now
00:02:13 is 13:19:56, 13:19:56, is 22:12:00, 22:12:00 is 09:00:55, 09:00:55 is 12:08:45, 12:08:45 is 00:00:01, 00:00:01 is 17:55:08, 17:55:08 is 06:09:02, 06:09:02 is 12:14:45, 12:14:45 is 23:00:22, 23:00:22 is 01:24:56, 01:24:56 is 19:12:33, 19:12:33 is 14:55:00, 14:55:00 is 02:12:00, 02:12:00 is 20:22:44, 20:22:44 is 23:00:00, 23:00:00 is 06:00:02, 06:00:02 is 17:22:06, 17:22:06 is 04:01:55, 04:01:55 is 22:00:00, 22:00:00 is 08:00:07, 08:00:07 is 12:11:34, 12:11:34 is 05:17:15. It is now.
Sleepwalking
I walk in the forest at night, I collect mushrooms at night, I hide from the sun at night, I dance with the moon at night.