The 17th-century chapel of Paris’ Fine Arts academy will host an exhibition by British artist Jessica Warboys, exploring the overlap between man-made culture and nature.
THIS TAIL GROWS AMONG RUINS (2023) presents a multi-channel video and sound installation, alongside SEA RIVER O (2023) a collage of large-scale unstretched paintings. The installation SEA RIVER O collages Sea Painting (2009-ongoing) and River Painting (2019-ongoing). Both ‘Sea’ and ‘River’ paintings are made below the high-water line, at the sea or the river’s edge. After immersion, the sodden canvases are pulled from the sea or river and stretched out onto the beach or riverbank, accordingly. The artist scatters mineral pigments – these colors are in part directed by hand, wind, sand, folds, and painted gestures in beeswax. The soundtrack for the installation incorporates ultrasound recordings of bats and original compositions by Morten Norbye Halvorsen. As bat calls resonate, the video follows the metamorphic journey of a candle through shifting contexts: an ancient forest, a 17th-century convent, a gilded library, rivers, and seas. Together, the paintings, video, and sound crystallize thoughts circling bodies – whether they be bodies of water, humans, or animals – and their potential for transformation.
The project is presented by Gaudel de Stampa (Paris).
Students from the École du Louvre are available every day from October 18 to October 22, from 2pm to 5.30pm, to provide visitors with information.
Address: 14 rue Bonaparte, 75006 Paris
Opening Hours: October 17 to 22, 2023, from 10am to 7pm
Free public access
Jessica Warboys, SEA RIVER O (detail), 2023. Courtesy of the artist and Gaudel de Stampa.
About the artist
Born in the UK in 1977, lives and works in Bergen, Norway and Berlin, Germany.
Jessica Warboys works in a variety of media: film, painting, sculpture, performance, glasswork, and printmaking. Her works, although produced in different media, often refer to each other. Nature features prominently in her art, as she sees it as both coworker and inspiration.
Educated at Falmouth College of Arts in Cornwall and then the Slade School of Fine Art in London, Warboys’s work was the subject of a solo exhibition at Gaudel de Stampa, Paris (2020) and she participated in the Coimbra Biennial of Contemporary Art, Portugal (2022), the Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art, Sweden (2021), and Documenta 13, Germany (2012). Her works can be found in public collections including the Towner Collection, UK; Arts Council Collection, UK; Kadist Foundation, Paris, France; Centre Pompidou, Paris, France; and Frac Nouvelle-Aquitaine MÉCA, Bordeaux, France, among others.
© Jessica Warboys