Hand embroidery, wool felt, various cotton threads, 120 cm diameter, 2019
Le Souffle questions the relationships, links and connections that people have with their environment, whether it is the urban environment, here represented through the plan of a city seen from above, or a more natural environment, here with elements that look like plants, such as the Ginkgo leaf. The embroidered threads trace routes, axes where one can circulate from one point to another and they show the tensions-connections of these relations. At times sudden, brutal, short, interrupted or on the contrary freer, spontaneous, co-constructed with man… Le Souffle speaks of displacement, pathway, crossing, invasion, proliferation…
The human figure, presented here in profile without apparent gender, occupies a central place in the work. Man (with a capital H) is the one who encompasses and articulates these relations-tensions-connections. It is the one who acts, makes choices, shapes… Does this human figure (es)blow? Does it (Re)take its breath? Does it sigh? Does it expel ?
Nature, by its strong plastic presence is first defined in its form and its contours by the leaf of Ginkgo blown, it seems controlled, contained. It is also suggested at the top of the skull by its invasive green and red lines, proliferating as if trying to escape? To extract itself? To resist?
The spectator is then invited to question his own perception-conception of the relations-cohabitations that he observes, wishes between the man and his (our) environment.