The weight of the non-existent

Work in progress...

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In my previous project, "My beautiful children and other anomalies", I proposed a reflection on maternity and infertility along with the idea that having an anomaly is actually the norm these days. If my last sculptures were the representations of the children that I will never have, my current creations are the representation of void.

 

From its Proto-Indo-European root, the word void, closely related to the French vide, is derived from eue meaning to leave or abandon. Interestingly, while researching its many definitions and associations, I learned that in theology "to be void of belief is to have fallen from grace". Also, I learned that the void or open gap of an armor leaves the body vulnerable; that it is associated with bereavement; and that in science it is the space that contains no matter. Furthermore, in 1680 Mme de Sévigné captured it well by writing that it is:" the sentiment of loss provoked by the absence, after death", a sentiment of solitude.

 

It is therefore, without wearing an armor, while putting myself in a great position of vulnerability, that I delve into some aspects of my intimate life that are linked to loss and abandonment. Hence, the act of creation flows from the emptiness which is explored with the use of hollow glass recipients. These were created to retain the void, give it form, as if to reveal its weight, while giving life to something that can never truly exist. This is not in an attempt to fill the emptiness, but instead to question it, to express it, as to set it free, and to liberate me from it, and perhaps for me to regain some kind of grace.