Maude Maris

Maude Maris is represented by the Pi Artworks Gallery in London and Istanbul. She works in Paris and regularly exhibits her works in France (40 mcube in Rennes, the Centre d’Art Chapelle Jeanne d’Arc in Thouars, MAMC in Saint Etienne...) and abroad (New York, London, Rome, Düsseldorf). Her works are presented in the collections of Frac Auvergne, lower Normandy, upper Normandy and the Fine Art Museum in Rennes. In 2010, she completed a post-graduate diploma at the Kunstakademie of Düsseldorf, during which she collaborated with architects.

MAUDE MARIS MEETS CAMILLE FOURNET

Maude Maris’ paintings speak of sculpture. To create the volume in her images, she establishes an entire process of molding and staging everyday objects, which, through successive manipulations, are enhanced with a sculptural dimension. Through this sharp fossilization process, she reconstructs imagined visions, nourished by documentary research ranging from an Anatolian archaeological site to photographs of modern sculptors' workshops. In doing so, she shapes a personal mythology while establishing an ambiguous realism. Confronted with these imperishable still lifes and embalmed objects, the viewer is caught between the illusion of a polished spatial perspective and the difficulty of identifying their scale.

ÉQUINOXES

« The cut leather piece becomes confused with the background due to an optical illusion, which itself appears to have holes and nicks. »

What made you want to participate in the équinoxes project?
To begin, it was my encounter with Françoise and Jean-Luc Déchery, and their interest in contemporary art. Their commitment to art is of the same breadth as that which they give to their brand. This sensibility can be found in the concerns that we share: attention to material and, above all, this almost architectural conception in working in leather goods, carried by the designers of Camille Fournet’s design studio.

What sources of inspiration guided your work?
I proposed installing a painting on one of the wall spaces of the boutique. To go back to architecture, I conceive this as a hollow molding of our existences, and my personal work could be defined as Dominique Païni did, by a sort of “negative of everyday life.” It’s thus natural that I used reliefs of cut pieces of leather for the background of the canvas, which are negative traces of the first step completed in creating a handbag. To prolong this “hollow” though, I like to also consider the bag as a container whose shape is modelled by the sum of the gestures that we apply to it.

How should your artwork be understood?
The cut leather piece becomes confused with the background due to an optical illusion, which itself appears to have holes and nicks. And in response to this cut, we see the first steps of fabrication, certain pigmented objects that emerge in the foreground, imprints of my own movements at the workshop, traces of living materials, all of which allow the viewer a wider interpretation.

Premier Acte, Maude Maris, 2018
Photo credit: Rebecca Fanuele.

Premier Acte
Maude Maris’ workshop
Photo credit: Rebecca Fanuele

Premier Acte
Artist at work
Photo credit: Rebecca Fanuele

Premier Acte
Details of the artwork
Photo credit: Rebecca Fanuele

CAMILLE FOURNET ENJOYS PLAYING WITH MATERIALS AND COLORS. WE LOVE CREATORS, THEIR INVENTIVENESS, THEIR ABILITY AND THE WONDER THEY'RE CAUSING.