Lilian Daubisse

AN ARCHAEOLOGY OF ONIRICAL RELICS

Lilian Daubisse reveals the unsuspected aura of a material often considered “poor”, through a manual, artisanal technique that is constantly being refined.

Lilian Daubisse's “encounter” came about by chance: “Since then, I've mainly used double-fluted cardboard, which is dense and similar to wood, allowing me to work on its chromatic nuances. For months, Lilian cuts, presses, folds, braids and sews the cardboard, playing with its reflections, empty spaces and fullness. Creation is also a question of time,” he explains. And if I can draw beforehand, I often enter directly into the material, which imposes its constraints and distances me somewhat from the original design. Then I cut strips of cardboard, 4 mm wide and 30 cm long, which I glue into sheets. This hand-crafted cut, never even, creates beautiful vibrations on the surface of the material.

The strength of Lilian Daubisse's work lies in the repetition of the gesture. From this repetitive movement on a seemingly ordinary material, evocative of the industrial world, masks, mosaic carpets, helmets, pectorals and armor are born, like so many New World ornaments from the forgotten reserves of a strange museum of primitive arts.

“Through my artifacts, a contradiction is revealed between industrially manufactured material for a materialistic society, and handmade confection echoing artisanal work.”

Like Tibetan Buddhist monks working on a sand mandala, Lilian Daubisse transforms common materials into objects of preciousness. From light, cardboard becomes dense and compact, its opacity transparent. Her sensual forms generously envelop us, while retaining a touch of mystery.

Far from contemporary artists who place the spoken word above the made, Lilian Daubisse places the humility of gesture at the heart of his work. His work invites us to dream, to travel and to search for meaning. Like an archaeologist, Lilian Daubisse unearths the remains of some distant civilization whose heyday has long been forgotten.

Sun discs, ceremonial ornaments or ritual pottery: all that remains is the evocative power of these artefacts offered up for our contemplation.