This beautiful exhibition is available in many forms: drawing, engraving, embroidery, sculpture… However, it was through photography that Lara Blanchard began her creative journey. ” In fact, I believe that this desire to create came to me from kindergarten. As a child, I loved to draw and in the end I learned everything on my own. I trust my hands. It is true that I studied photography as part of an art module in Strasbourg, but photography quickly became too flat for me. I then traveled quite a bit abroad, notably in Ireland, in contact with creators and craftsmen. Back in France, my artistic project took shape and I started to work on the material, whatever it was..».
L’inspiration ?
« I have a great interest in everything related to life sciences such as botany, zoology, anatomy. When I was a child, my mother had anatomy encyclopedias and forbade me to open them because of the pictures. But of course, when I was forbidden something, I only wanted to do it! »
The materials ?
« I use more and more: fabrics, clay, felt, ceramics. In fact today my hands work as well engraving as modelling, sewing, felting or embroidery. I receive by the head and my hands do the rest. In my creations I have moments of bliss. I like the idea of being in the craft. In fact, the border between art and craftsmanship is very thin. Today I have a desire, that of working with glass. I will come there I think».
These characters all in white that you exhibit?
« With them, I create spaces. White is neutral and so everyone can project their own colors, their culture. What I also like is the variety of exhibition venues. Each place is a new adventure for me. I adapt to it, but there is always this idea of walking my creations ».
Bigger characters?
« I expose 10 of them here. There are 3 in Evian too. They are therianthropes, beings half-man half-animal, primitive and contemporary at the same time, timeless. These characters are masked, frozen and seem to advance towards the public. Characters which according to the visitor can be an African or South American deity. Everyone can find resonance there for their own journey. I consider my characters as entities. Beyond cultures, they speak to everyone and are associated both with a very distant time and a very current ecological emergency. ».
Prints too?
« This is a drypoint etching work. I work on old textiles with coloring using watercolors or real gold. They represent animals, insects, anatomy that I approach through the idea of life. »
A soundtrack accompanies the exhibition…
« A soundscape in fact. I collect sounds in nature: rivers, birds, torrents, footsteps and then I rework them”.
Does nature inspire you?
« I love it. I live in Haute-Savoie in St Jean D’Aulps. This is where I have my studio. It’s my brain. At the moment I am renovating a barn there to spread out more (laughs).
In Corsica, you are served on the natural side…
« I discover your island for the 1time times. Unfortunately, I won’t stay there long, but I’ll come back for more, that’s for sure. Especially since I love hiking. In addition the reception is magnificent ».