Marianne Chenard
Ceramic Art
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Artist Statement
My current art practice articulates itself around a site-specific approach to installation art which evokes the human perceptual relationship with nature and makes plain an attentiveness to the agency of the natural environment.
Ceramic embodies water, earth, fire, and air in each of its transforming stages. I explore these aspects separately, giving them time and space to act; to later observe the relationships which manifests between elements. I use natural materials that are either exploited or modified by humans, such as kaolin, beeswax, salt and wood. The additive process of foreign material to a natural environment demands the need for balance and respect for the ecosystem. My actions question the relations between the non-human and the human, bringing forward the metaphor of the cycle, a sensibility to the issues of climate change, and to the pursuit of global environmental sustainability.
My artwork is materialized through performance, video, print, earth art, sound, and installation. My performance in the creation of the work uses gesture and analogy of drawing. I create lines that function as a cut into space. By erasing the horizon, working close to the ground, or taking my body out of the composition, a dislocation happens. The sense of place is taken away, leaving blank stage for the matter and the natural elements to act. I am interested in the ways marks disappear and how time perception varies from the tide, to the fast flame of burning wood, to the slow melting of ice.
Through my research, I explore gestures, natural elements, and matters that intra-define one another. My artwork attempts to dissolve boundaries accentuating the generative and resilience of the material forms with which social actors interact. I seek the relationship between the perceiver and the perceived to create a moment where natural elements and human experience are intertwined, where responsibility and attachment coexist, and where embody entails disappearance.
![Gallery view of Turner Gallery](_images/01chenard_marianne-660x452.jpg)
Elementãlis MFA exhibition, gallery view
![Two framed Photographies. Line of kaolin dust on a rocky cliff. White sky and white frozen water](_images/02chenard_marianne-660x442.jpg)
Drawing. Vertige // diptych, gallery view // 35 x 41 inches each // Inkjet print on watercolor paper, kaolin.
![One framed photography in the front plan of the gallery view, two framed Photographies in the back. Dramatic lighting](_images/03chenard_marianne-660x540.jpg)
Drawing. Portal. // gallery view // 42 x 48 inches // Inkjet print on watercolor paper, kaolin.
![Photography of a rocky landscape with a frozen line created from the tide. A portal, a rectangular shaped was painted on the rocks.](_images/04chenard_marianne-660x500.jpg)
Drawing. Portal. // 42 x 48 inches // Inkjet print on watercolor paper, kaolin.
![A large Photography mounted on the wall, a circular sculpture made of hand size chunk of clay Display in a gradient color pattern. A person looks at the picture](_images/05chenard_marianne-660x725.jpg)
Drawing. Fire // Photography 43x 67 inches, circle 72 inches diameter // Inkjet print on watercolor paper mounted on aluminum porcelain, firewood.
![A large photography mounted on the wall. A large circular sculpture made of natural beeswax with a sphere of ice and soda ash melting. A person walks towards the image.](_images/06chenard_marianne-660x682.jpg)
Drawing. Glacier // Photography 36 x 72 inches, circle 72 inches diameter // Inkjet print on watercolor paper mounted on aluminum, Soda ash, ice, natural beeswax, ceramic pigment, and food grade salt.
![Soda ash is crystallizing as water is evaporating on a natural beeswax colored with black pigment.](_images/07chenard_marianne-660x466.jpg)
Drawing. Glacier details crystallization // circle 72 inches diameter // Soda ash, ice, natural beeswax, ceramic pigment.
![Soda ash is crystallizing as water is evaporating on a natural beeswax colored with black pigment](_images/08chenard_marianne-660x440.jpg)
Drawing. Glacier details crystallization // Drawing . Glacier details crystallization // Soda ash, ice, natural beeswax, ceramic pigment.
![Video is projected on two screens, one made of natural silk and the other recycled polyester.](_images/09chenard_marianne-660x989.jpg)
Drawing. Drift // Screen 96 x 120 inches // Kaolin, snow, projected video and sound installation, natural silk and recycled polyester.
![Light sensitive clay is reacting to a projecting video and changing colors over time. Large piece of glass suspended](_images/10chenard_marianne-660x756.jpg)
Aube collaboration with Isabella Uliasz // 48 x 48 inches // Light sensitive clay, glass, video projection.