Serie From square to pixel
To navigate, sailors use visual landmarks in the coastal landscape. These markers are sometimes painted rocks.
When painting focuses its gaze on a natural element, it becomes an image, a view, a subject worthy of contemplation.
Whether it’s cartography or painting that looks at a part of the world, that part is somehow extracted from its condition, to become something else.
Landmarks, 2024. Geometry, 2022. Cosmos, 2022.
Whether it is cartography or painting that looks at a part of the world, this part is in a sense extracted from its condition, to become something else.
A pile of stone, a complex ecosystem in which thousands of organisms and cycles are intertwined, which is itself part of an even greater whole, becomes a signalling tool or an aesthetic object.
It is the way we look at this element that brings about this transformation. A given environment is transformed by some into a map, by others into a landscape, two specific forms of representation. In both cases, a monolithic vision - through the prism of technology or aesthetic sensation - is proposed in place of its complex, multidimensional essence
The development of GPS technology has made the use of maps almost obsolete. An image of a satellite calibration target gives an idea of this transformation, which is leading to a different relationship with the land. The map and the land are tending to merge, and the surface of the Earth itself has become the map.
From Square to Pixel : Landmarks, 2024.
Digital collage, 160 cm x120 cm.
Some elements of interpretations :
This extract from a 1989 TV footage, shows the boat name of navigator Olivier de Kersauzon which translates to “A different look”.
The enigmatic patterns in the landscape are in fact a calibration target for satellites. This one is located in Shadnagar, India.
The straight lines visible on maps contrast with the irregularity of natural patterns. The handdrawn document conveys a feeling of warmth and materiality that is further enhanced by the proximity to contemporary images.
This representation of nature from artist William Orpen show an romantic driven perception of a complex ecosystem. As a subjective
This familiar square field bird’s-eye view gives a sensation of rationality, an environment crafted by humans and designed for machine use. This is the modern version of the map : an HD in real time representation of the land, that makes maps look like an old-fashioned object.
The presence of the picture frame has a symbolic meaning, representing how the technique can drive us to adopt a certain mindset that “frame” things, rejecting what is outside of the focus range.
This illustration, taken from a geography manual from the 1970s, explains the distortion that maps introduce in the representation of continents. This highlights how our representation models, which we tend to perceive as objective and infallible, inadvertently introduce biases into our depiction of the world.
From Square to Pixel : Geometry, 2022.
Print on paper, 160 cm x 120 cm.
This poster offers an open reflection on the geometric shape of the square as a common denominator in the history of technology and the history of art making.
How seeing the world through a grid affects the perceptions of the world, touching other topics such as sacred geometry, photography and how devices are taking over our senses.
From Square to Pixel : Cosmos, 2022.
Print on paper, 160 cm x 120 cm.
Here, two aesthetics from image reproduction techniques come together : engraving and digital printing.
The old image is taken from a work by Camille Flammarion (French astronomer and spiritualist, who died in 1925) which illustrates the legend of a pilgrim who discovered the gateway between the Earth and the Empyrean. A mosaic, whose shapes evoke the digital world (pixels, QR codes, green screen, etc.), replace the cosmic forms in the original woodcut.