Géraldine Chansard

“What is invisible to the eye, I make it visible to the heart”. Acrylic painting, ink sketch on paper reveal a character. The face or the whole body drawn as children do, turns out to be the main subject. My hand is no longer linked to the brain but to the emotional gut system. From a very young age, art has been my means of communication. In 2007, I returned to a deep feeling with an acrylic painting title Innocence sacrificed. In 2010, I realized how expressive art gives much more meaning to my artistic practice; how to give a good energy to the line, which color to choose rather than another. I developed the idea of a collective exhibition Meme pas mal in France in 2011. I deepened the style in 2014 in Dubai with 30 new paintings. In 2016, writing a book on my paintings was a revelation to go even further. Historical and cultural heritage like weaving, for example, is an intangible practice that connects my hand to cells, my mind to memories; in this way, I feel attached to society. As my father wrote in this quote: “Life is only a link that transmits knowledge to your tribe”. As a visual artist, I prefer to use a material that carries stories and life rather than a material that is too perfect. I can see the hidden part considered most of the time as a social error, an imperfect shape, waste, rust, dust, scratches … The small detail is for me the only truth that deserves interest.

The old painting techniques where I feel the roots of creation connect the past to the present. Academic practice is comfortable. However, the future is the hidden part and I believe in my new project which has so much to say.

Géraldine is committed to the values of expressionism in painting. In this project she adds an artisanal dimension inspired by an authentic weaving technique known in the UAE as Al Sadu. The ‘thread’ is vegetable fiber and so her work has a unifying essence with its connection to the tree, the symbol of life and peace. As directly extracted from its proper environment, algae is Géraldine’s medium of expression in this exhibition. She extracts vegetable fibers from the mangrove seaweed, spinning them into a yarn when dry or as a flat surface on which to paint. Her concept is “the more important is the action and use treasure I have around me which is precious to reveal the essential of being”.

Géraldine’s desire for authenticity and unifying is consistent with previous weaving projects including the 2011 Ma fibre naturelle that took place in the birth house of Henri Matisse. Expressions from her inner childish sketches characters constantly animate her art, as shown in her 2010 Même pas mal in France. The sculpture made in fishing nests, Woman from the water, illustrates the suffering and agony. Human being, especially the protective power of the woman demonstrates fragile harmony.