Anthropomorphic Interventions in the Landscape by Estelle Chrétien Playfully Examine Rural Life



“Land Operation” (2016-2020). All pictures © Estelle Chrétien, shared with permission

For artist Estelle Chrétien, the expansive lawns, fields, and wooded ravines round her residence in Nancy, France, and different elements of Europe turn out to be websites of mischievous mixed-media interventions. By means of a playful strategy that she refers to as gauillant, akin to the sensation of enjoying within the mud or leaping in puddles, the works develop by means of likelihood encounters with the panorama and objects inside it. Displayed in an “open-air” exhibition model, her items might be encountered by viewers in the same approach, with the potential to shock and delight.

Chrétien is especially inquisitive about rural and pure locations and examines the best way we work together with these environments by means of an typically humorous or ironic anthropomorphizing of her environment. Naturally occurring varieties and textures encourage short-term installations like “Dessous” (“Beneath”) during which a tree with a double trunk, adorned with some outsized underpants, transforms right into a pair of lengthy legs jutting out of the bottom. In “Opération Terrestre” (“Land Operation”) the manicured garden of a stately residence has acquired a wound in want of stitches.

The method of studying easy methods to assemble or manipulate completely different mediums is a vital a part of Chrétien’s strategy. From crocheting industrial twine round a hay bale to repurposing a door into the form of an enormous key fob, she enjoys experimenting with unassuming supplies in sudden places. She is presently getting ready for a brand new open-air venture in France this summer season, and you will discover extra of her tasks on her website and Instagram.

“Dessous” (2020)

“Land Operation” (2016-2020)

“Les pieds au sec” (2015-2020), in collaboration with Miguel Costa

“Ficelle Agricole Bleue” (2014)

“Dessous” (2020). Picture by Miguel Costa

“Propriété” (2021)

“Colonne” (2020)

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