Skin and landscape - a strange universe

Skin and Landscape a strange universe

Chantal Pollier

Skin and landscape, a strange universe Chantal Pollier, 2017

“Love in this way produces real geological upheavals of thought. In the mind of M. de Charlus, which only several days before resembled a plane so flat that even from a good vantage point one could not have discerned an idea sticking up above the ground, a mountain range had abruptly thrust itself into view, hard as rock--but mountains sculpted as if an artist, instead of taking the marble away, had worked it on the spot, and where there twisted about one another, in giant and swollen groupings, Rage, Jealousy, Curiosity, Envy, Suffering, Pride, Astonishment, and Love.�

Marcel Proust, in search for lost times

Starting from the flesh and skin, I aim to come to an abstraction of the perishable bag in which we live. The artscience residency at the faculty of Veterinary Medicine in Ghent (B) in 2016 provided me with a huge richness of skins to be touched, smelled and photographed.

The skin is seen as a separation between the inside of a body/object and the space around it, the skin itself being a shapeless organ. Being cut loose from the body it brings up a strange objectification with an unheimliches feeling and indefinable sense of misfortune.

Stone

It was not easy to determine what stone to use. In July '16 I visited the Faroe Islands, a small group of islands high up in the northern Atlantic Ocean. The islands consist entirely of the lava rock basalt with dark beaches of black basaltic grains. Maybe basalt was the stone I was looking for. I became fascinated by lava and especially by the moment the liquid, bubbling mass turned into solid rock. To me basalt is the original rock. A lot of basalt is very lightweight and crushed, only the lava that cools down slowly in the heart of the volcano is suitable for sculpting.

‘I am lava .1’ - pen and pencil on photo

So my research started at a strange point. I made a series of drawings: 'I am lava'. I also made a first experimental work in steatite, a very soft limestone. It is an attempt to show the solidification, the forming of a thin stone sheet on the liquid lava. Translating the movement to stone, albeit a very slow movement that comes to a standstill.

‘I am lava .2’

‘I am lava .3’ - detail

‘ I am lava’ - steatite and gold leaf

In the meantime I read 'How to read the landscape', wherein I discover that stone is not as immobile, silent and dead as it is supposed to be: stone is in constant motion, but the movements are slow beyond our sense of time.

We can see it through a reading of the landscape: a fold, a break, a pile, a color. This is the permanence movement.

photo taken by me of a mountain on the faroĂŤr islands.

Searching for artistic translations from skin to stone I am somewhat dissapointed. Except for the fact that the more damaged the remnants of sculptures are, the more vivid everything becomes. So it is precisely the decay, the weathering and the aging that brings about an empathic reaction. The British Museum shows me Roman torsos and weathered faces with parts missing ‌ fragments.

I decide to sculpt fragments.

I cannot find my basalt stone.

Ancient vegetation on the basalt rocks on the FaroĂŤr islands

Animals Under the skin

At the same time, my research residency at the Morphology department of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine begins: I make lots of casts of the skins of different animal species. It soon becomes clear to me that making the skin mould is not interesting at all: a dead hippopotamus arrived with its unusual and fascinating skin structure.

However, as soon as I separate the skin from the underlying muscles and skeleton, I acquire a leather heap - I can just as well buy my skins in a leather factory.

I am interested in the skinfragments as separations between the inside and outside. The skin itself is like a strange object that needs a new form. I make a work: 'skin-mountain', inspired by this experience. The skin of the dead hippopotamus is back.

Mouldmaking on the skin of a hippopotamus

‘Skin-mountain’ - wax, led

Pieces of animals

I become fascinated by the fragile belly of the animal: the nipples, udders, the testicles, the sexual organs ... With the skin much more vulnerable - an unclear boundary between the inside and the outside. I accidentally bumped into the cutting room and noticed that research was being conducted on goats, I asked for an udder and a bucket full of udders was brought to me. Being cut loose from the body there is an alienating objectification. The original function is lost and an indefinable sense of misfortune and horror is taking its place.

Udders

The casted udders in my studio, and some other body parts

A pig with its guts taken out for research was thrown in a container. I make a mould of the cut-open belly. The strongest moulds are those where only a fragment of the body is represented and I use this experience when I start sculpting. My Convergence series consists of 'cuts' from an imagined landscape, a parallel universe where the landscape is a body.

SEM and photography

Small preparate from the vascular system of a cow’s eye

A basking shark arrives at the faculty. I make pictures of the dead animal and take small skin samples. These are processed to be examined under the SEM microscope.

The samples thick enough to be examined as a cross-section, seem very interesting. Imagine the ‘edges’ of an island. I see a strange universe, recognisable but also discomforting , even disturbing.

Stereomicroscopic photo of the papillaria of the tongue of a cat

Skin samples – edges of the sample are very interesting.

The idea pops up to make sketches via linocuts: the distance when staring through a microscope is comparable with looking through a reinforced lamp to make the linocuts as precise as possible. The grey tones of the SEM images strengthen the feeling of entering an 'alien world'. The slowness of working in lino also fallows me to think better how to cut the lines. The lino is the basis for bas-reliefs in stone.

There is a camera mounted on the stereomicroscope, allowing sharp photos to be taken. I got permission to use and publish the photos. I am looking for the possibilities with this new medium. The images of the SEM microscope are really interesting too.

‘Convergenten’

My studio is crowded with pieces of animal: goats udders, the belly of a piglet, a head of a crocodile, its flank, the skin of a tapir. Very impressive, but how do I proceed? I try different types of stone and I experiment with combinations of materials: wax on stone, oil on marble. A fragment of a hippopotamus in white marble and wax, painted with oil paint, a mummy of a guinea pig as a mountain range in alabaster. Weird works. It comes close to what I have in mind, but I'm not there yet. I make a small work in black marble, the microscopic photo of skin cells as inspiration.

‘landscape .1’ - covelano marble, wax, oil paint

landscape .2 - alabaster

The use of wax on marble shows a very interesting combination of surface structures. It reinforces the strange feeling that I want to evoke.

The color of black marble is close to basalt. I will continue to work in black marble, despite the many limitations that the material is imposing on me. Working on a black marble is very difficult and the stone is expensive so I have to work carefully - I cannot make any mistakes.

landscape .3 - Belgian marble

My stone supplier had a solid block of black marble that had been standing outside for many years. The marble was split by the action of water seeping through, pushing existing crevices. The block was now full of large natural fractures and became unsuitable for most sculptors but ideal for my project. The fractures show the surface eg ‘skin’ of the stone without any human intervention.

In Ireland, basalt stone is often used and one of the most popular applications is the 'natural surface basalt stone'. The stones are clipped and show the surface without visible human intervention. I ask my stone supplier to saw a perfect square block around a natural fracture. It appears to be not so obvious a task. Black marble is very easily broken and the corners are fragile, but it works.

The first hurdle for 'The Gatekeeper' is taken. The work is about the beauty of the fracture. Gold leaf and Cortensteel complete the work. It is a strange, threatening piece that I can’t explain. The perfect square, the noble material, the incredible stubbornness, the beauty of the black, gold, rust. The title 'Gatekeeper' is referring to the 'keeper of things you are not supposed to see'. The guardian of the parallel world, the guardian of the key who grants or denies access. It is a very pure image but I don’t understand it.

‘ The gatekeeper’ - black marble, cortensteel, gold leaf

Meanwhile, the other works are taking shape.

'Erratic .1’ is the second work in black marble. While working ... memories of the landscape on the Faroe Islands, the black sand on the beach, the naked basalt cliffs, the hills shaped by glaciers millions of years ago ... The insignificance.

It is very difficult to come up with a way to display the organic in stone. I am experimenting with transitions from the original surface of the stone (not touched by human hands) to surfaces created by me. This fascinating little project creates a tension that seems very interesting.

The stone is very dark when sanded, polished and oiled. The dark surface takes away a lot of information that I absolutely want to keep. I decide to leave intact a selection of scratches, lines and remnants of my interventions and to ‘paint’ the impregnating oil on the stone in a controlled manner. I make the surfaces on the sides very dark to emphasize that I am showing a fragment.

‘Erratic .1’ - Black belgian marble

The third work in marble is 'Lorifa' or ‘Weed’. It is a bas relief based on the lino with the same name. Both works are strongly linked. They are different results from the same source.

‘Lorifa’ - linocut

‘Lorifa’ – black marble

The flattened surface was created following a natural fracture. I left part of this surface untouched, it became part of the work. Small crystals and fossils make the work stronger.

‘Erratic 2’ has a different point of view. Another fragment, yet this erratic is influenced by hair on the skin and how to represent this in stone. I found some ‘hairy’ stones on the beach, covered in seaweed. These images together with hairsamples I took from a goats udder, inspired me to create this work.

‘Erratic .2’ - detail in resemblance with the hairy stones.

‘Erratic .2’ - black Belgian marble

landscape .2

This lino is based on the inside of a mould of a crocodile skin, like a cathedral.

landscape .3

Based on the stereophoto of the papillaria of the tongue of a cat. Another island.

I investigate the skin samples I took of a basking shark. Some images immediately catch my eye. One photo shows a dentical, magnified 150 times - 500 Îźm. Denticals are tiny 'teeth' on the skin of the shark. Skin denticals ensure that a shark has less resistance in the water, making him the fastest swimmer. Each species of shark has his own dentical shape that evolved in the development of the animal. Eventually only the teeth and the denticles remain. Some become fossils and are important for research in the evolution of the species.

SEM photo of the denticle of a basking shark credits chantal Pollier, with thanks to the Ugent dep. Morphology and veterinary studies

Everything is ready: a stone with the beautiful sloping surface that arose after a break, the shape perfect to make a 'mountain'. ‘Mountain’ is a work in progress.

The last five years I collected all kinds of fragments: skin parts, dead insects, hair, ... a small yet strange collection has considerably grown this year. These fragments are part of a new installation: 'Curiosity killed the cat'. The presentation reminds me of a word puzzle with letter associations that can lead to strange worlds and clear links that you unwittingly follow.

‘Curiosity killed the cat’ - details of the installation

‘Curiosity killed the cat’

Perspectives

And then there is the world of photography and video: my dive in the world of microscopy opened a door to new possibilities. Photo on stone, combinations of photo and other media, ‌ I started to do some experimental research here. The film material I collected is demanding for further processing. For years I have been thinking of making a work on which film and stone coincide in a symbiosis of stillness and movement. I just discovered the possibilities of video mapping, and would like to investigate this area further in order to arrive at new work full of contrasts. The volatility of film combined with the heaviness and stillness of stone. I am thinking of combining this in a simultaneous processing of a stone with a projection on the surface of the stone shaped by me. Eternity and the passing of time combined.

Chantal Pollier, april 2018