Processing tensions between the self, memory and rebellion through his work, Camille Blatrix’s solo show at MOSTYN in Llandudno aims to reflect feelings of both the fictional and autobiographical. In conjunction with winning the Prix d’Enterprise Ricard in 2014, No School will be Blaxtrix’s first solo show in the UK.
Conceptualised from a trip the French artist took to Llandudno in 2014 in the depths of winter, No School unites a fictitious autobiography through his imaged memories of growing up in the Welsh town, anchored with artwork from his parents Dorothée Loriquet (ceramicist) and François Blatrix (former painter), pieces which are untied by his own interventionist art.
Loosely referring to the film Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986), Blatrix’s reflective vision in No School expresses a very personal conflict between rebellion and respect, skipping school but presenting art beautifully. As part of the ongoing Conversation Series at MOSTYN, Blaxtrix’s No School touches on narrated mythology in an intimately personal way, transcending the reality of the artist’s biography and presenting it on a level we can surely all identify with.
Work from Camille Blatrix’s UK solo show at MOSTYN, Wales
Tell me about your process behind this exhibition.
I always do site specific work. I like to think of a new exhibition or a project to keep things more exciting. It always starts with an invitation and so when MOSTYN invited me, I went to Llandudno during the winter and it was a really sad time there. I went in December, it was raining a lot, everyone I was meeting had things to do and everything closed at 5pm.
I was totally alone and had the feeling that I was from Llandudno and was returning after living in the city, it was like going back there and I couldn’t find the thing I had when I was a child. That feeling was really new for me because I actually grew up in a big city, surrounded by the same people and I never left so it was just a strange feeling, so I thought it was a good start for the exhibition because I always begin with a feeling, emotion or sensation – it is always an abstract start.
Work from Camille Blatrix’s UK solo show at MOSTYN, Wales
So how did this starting point translate into the physical show?
Because I had the feeling of going back through memories, of going back to Llandudno but in reality have no actual memories – I don’t know anyone or have any stories there – I really had the feeling that I was going back through my past as a child, like a child going back to school. I wanted to talk about that but I didn’t have any stories about Llandudno so I thought about inviting my parents to do the show with me and to have more of an ambiguous relationship with Llandudno as if my parents were the show and I could go back through them and through their story and have my own story within the space.
Work from Camille Blatrix’s UK solo show at MOSTYN, Wales
How important is your parents’ relationship to you and this exhibition?
For me my parents represent the past but the past in general, I’m not interested in the relationship I have between my parents, I just like the relationship that creates their whole work, my mother the modernist ceramicist and my father the romantic painter.
I like that contrast between old museums and me as a young artist or a child with a day off from school going through a museum, putting gum on the stuff, not really caring for anything. So the show is about that, about going to a place you don’t know but the place has been there for years and years and me as a young artist with all my vulgarity, trying to infiltrate that old, beautiful respectful place.
Work from Camille Blatrix’s UK solo show at MOSTYN, Wales
I play with that, I wrote a text where I am talking about me going to Llandudno with nothing to do and the text becomes more of a story about the people of Llandudno who graduate and talk about all their stories there and so I will really play the game with those two things – I’m trying to escape the memories but respect them in the same way.
Work from Camille Blatrix’s UK solo show at MOSTYN, Wales
How did you parents receive your invitation to collaborate with you?
My father doesn’t want to talk about paintings anymore and no longer paints. He used to be a really committed painter – he spent half of his life in Tuscany painting and after that he spent all his time working in his studio in Paris. At a certain point he decided to quit everything, he left Paris to go to Brittany where he’s now a woodworker and at that point my mother started to be a sculptor. When my father stopped, my mother started. She stopped everything she was doing and is just a ceramic artist now. It is really funny because my mother is really excited about this show and my father is the complete opposite.
Work from Camille Blatrix’s UK solo show at MOSTYN, Wales
How do you see the pieces interacting with each other in the show?
In a really simple way. I have made a really traditional installation from the work of my parents, with mine intersecting theirs. I have made artificial wood gum and silver spit, along with imitation marketing notes and drawings – these additions go through the main pieces as a rebellion. It will be an interaction, but in a more violent way. Alongside designer friend Camille Blin I built all the pedestals and frames for the pieces, in a way I’m trying to put them under a spotlight by making a beautiful pedestal in a really respectful way. It’s going to be a fight between those two feelings, rebellion and beauty.
Work from Camille Blatrix’s UK solo show at MOSTYN, Wales
Is it fair to say that the show is reflective of yourself?
Yes. I start with that personal experience but in another way, I’m trying to make it more open. I think this is a relationship that everybody has – the past and family. I always start like that, with a personal feeling but I’m really trying to erase that to make it open so I don’t directly talk about myself.
Work from Camille Blatrix’s UK solo show at MOSTYN, Wales
How has your art been influenced by your childhood?
When I was a child I never wanted to be an artist, I thought it would be a nightmare. Now that I am an artist I realise that when I was really young my father read to me on Italian paintings all day long, and now I see my mother as a ceramist making sculptures. I see artist friends who have come from families that are not really artistic and it is totally different. For me it is really easy to be an artist because I don’t have to fight about anything, I just have to say yes. The decision to be an artist was something very simple.
Who influences you?
I think I’m more interested in really formal artists like Vincent Fecteau and the guys from San Francisco, or HC Westermann. For me they are kind of similar to my mother, they are contemporary artists but they work in the same way – they just don’t care about the environment, they just pay attention to the sculpture they make.
by Stephanie Clair
Camille Blatrix No School is open now until November 1 2015 at MOSTYN gallery, Llandudno. Go here for more information.
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