Giant Model
Artist Huang Yong Ping contacted me in order to finalize the model of his project which would become, one year later, “Empire”, his work for Monumenta in 2016. Composed of a serpent skeleton which undulated in the middle of shipping containers, the model was already more than a few meters wide. My responsibilities were first and foremost to create the miniatures of the metal supports which would support the serpent. I then needed to mold in resin the sides and the supplemental vertebrates, which were insufficient to complete this never-ending skeleton.
I left the studio excited to have participated in this exceptional project which was both meditative and also allowed me to discover that a snake also has flanks and vertebrae.
Because of this encounter, I had the privilege to share in the day to day life of the artist, within his studio and his home, for several days. I discovered a deeply sensible and generous person, whom I had the honor to assist with the rest of the project and see it through until its installation at the Grand Palais in Paris.
Not long ago, I was interviewed at the Gare de Nantes by a local journalist. The journalist asked me how to best describe my contribution to the concrete tree sculpture; as an artist or an artisan? Normally, this type of question would have left me speechless, had I not thankfully prepared a very polite, very vague answer:
“we are a bit of both”