Val by Val

Biographical highlights | Academic views | Val by Val

Text of Val for her solo Exhibition Theatre of life at the RedSea Gallery in Singapore in October 2010

I feel an irrepressible hankering to create which only grows in stature and is getting stronger over the years and makes me run to my studio from sunrise. I stop at nightfall, overworked by the concentration of my day; the work accomplished in the heat of the climate of Bangkok.

I spent my day with a multitude of characters with whom I play like puppets.

I change the position of a leg, creating a swaying, I imagine a look in a new direction, I look for complicity between the characters, I make them have a dialog or live next to each other with indifference.

I have been diving around in the sensual pleasures of form, the finding of a line, the distortion or twist of the plan to allow the light to perform. I let the chance of the shape apprehend me and give me new directions while my fingers are playing, moving forward, guided by instinct in an unknown direction.

I took the time to look, to observe the details, to take a step back, to fit new ways of looking to assess, evaluate, modify, discard, confirm.

Poetry guides my thinking, my ongoing research, I forge shape like rimes, I am looking for a gentle curve to evoke a kind of inner equilibrium: the balance of a skiff on the water, the poetry of a book that flies away, of a hand that free itself from an architecture, the poetry of a shadow reflected on a wall like moving and silent silhouettes. [ + ]

Let me evoke snapshots, moments identified by those who know, those who are seeking and taking the time to watch the boldness of a way to walk, the sweetness of a head tilt.

I am considering the smallness of man. The importance of each fate that weights a feather in the history of humanity and invades me periodically, like a refrain that calms my ardor.

The architecture that underlies my work has several roles.

It provides a structure to my characters that allows them to settle and this adds to the evocation of the moment. My bronze character is a particular and identified location; this rigid framework will bring him alive, like in a selected moment in his evolution, as opposed with the timelessness of the structure.

This architecture also allows me to add a new dimension to my creation. A sculpture means raw material, shapes, plans, lines. The structure, life a frame for my characters, will add the dimension of the void as opposed to the full.

My architectures, in parallel to that play of space and light, will locate my characters in space, underlie a relationship between man and the world around him. I’ll play on different scales, new understanding data for my sculptures. Man may feel overwhelmed by the immensity that surrounds him or feel serene and in harmony with the world. Man may be excessively big in the image of his pride and the importance he feels invested with, or the big image of his work, which is huge compared to the time and resources outsourced to him.

The architecture, theater decor of my characters, will have two sources of main inspiration in the image of the world that surrounds us.

An urban inspiration, a multitude of characters evolving in a framework inspired by urban architecture. The town is in constant motion, the city has a rhythm of its own, a breathing of her own. My characters in these urban decors are implicit in action, they are steeped in the rhythm of the city. These urban architectures evoke the urban crowd, the absurdity of fate caught up in this crowd, the pride of those lives that feel unique to the image of excess and grandeur of the architectural buildings but also the intimacy of a fleeting and secret moment perceived through a window or a half-open door.

An inspiration from nature through the observation of the immense and the details and the taking over of the aquatic and plant forms, a rendering of the underlying balance around us, the beauty caught from the nature, the line of a leaf, the transparency of a drop, all shapes, lines and colors that surround us. This rhythm of that we missed who reminds us in these unusual moments where we know to be attentive. The tie of my characters with these structures will become softer and more harmonious as a balance which finds itself when we take the time to listen to the world.

Text of Val for her solo Exhibition Theatre of life at the RedSea Gallery in Singapore in October 2010

I spent my day with a multitude of characters with whom I play like puppets.

I took the time to look, to observe the details, to take a step back, to fit new ways of looking to assess, evaluate, modify, discard, confirm.

Let me evoke snapshots, moments identified by those who know, those who are seeking and taking the time to watch the boldness of a way to walk, the sweetness of a head tilt.

I am considering the smallness of man. The importance of each fate that weights a feather in the history of humanity and invades me periodically, like a refrain that calms my ardor.

The architecture that underlies my work has several roles.

The architecture, theater decor of my characters, will have two sources of main inspiration in the image of the world that surrounds us.

French sculptor Val - Valérie Goutard - at the REDSEA Gallery with Sculptureval

Exhibition “Theatre of life” at the REDSEA Gallery in September 2010

Exhibition of French sculptor Val - Valérie Goutard - at the AAM Art & Arch Museum in Taiwan with Sculptureval

AAM Art & Arch Museum (Taiwan) in March 2012

Speech of Val at Jinray Art & Arch Museum grand opening (Taichung – Taiwan) in 2012

Being an artist requires a full commitment.
Work, work and work drove my way in sculpting in the last ten years.
I realize new sculptures like a continuous learning which drives me in a direction I deeply feel, towards a goal I cannot yet imagine as I hope I still will have many working years dedicated to my personal learning I am following every day.

Sculpting, I am a poet doing lines instead of verses, working the rhythms of my architectures like a rhyme, using repetition, avoiding boredom, trying to let the poetry invade me while working on my attitudes, guide me where the beauty is. [ + ]

Speech of Val at Jinray Art & Arch Museum grand opening (Taichung – Taiwan) in 2012

Opening speech of Val’s new studio (May 2013)

These two open-house days celebrate ten years of sustained work, ten years of intense life, ten years of continuous learning, peppered with joys, sorrows, difficulties, encouragements, doubts but always carried by the deep conviction that I belong in this search and personal adventure, to dare to follow my guiding line in complete freedom.

My work space is normally a jealously protected space, a space of inner concentration, of physical work, of reflection, of effort. To create, I listen, I look, I take my time, I feel each gesture, I move slowly and surely at the rhythm I feel. The studio, this space protected from the roughness of the outside world, is essential for me to make my buried emotions vibrate and resonate and to tame them with my hands.

Only the constraint of a rigorous and regular work allows me to reach the necessary concentration in order to identify and seize all these images which arise, these fleeting sensations, these snapshots which I will try to pose in sculpture.
[ + ]

Opening speech of Val’s new studio (May 2013)

It seemed important to me to share this anniversary and this inauguration by opening my creative universe not only to collectors but more widely, to share my passion, to show the work of my team, all the stages necessary to go from creation in wax to realisation in bronze, all the complexity of a process allowing to follow the meanders of my creations where the plain and the void dialogue endlessly. If we create the plains in bronze, the voids bring all the complexity to the creation of the sculpture. The void forces us to think, to decompose, to cut, to measure in order to create and then to recompose, to assemble, to find this energizing balance between fullness and emptiness.

This ten-year anniversary coincides very happily with this new studio, like a recognition of the journey already accomplished, auguring the one still to be discovered. This space, which we thought up and imagined with Frédéric, is the crucible for my future creations, and is also the cultural space that we wish to animate with the artists that Frédéric supports.

This workshop is a space to create and a space to exhibit, a space to compose and a space to watch, a space of spontaneity, of free imagination, of resourcefulness, of achievements.

For this first exhibition, the choice of how to show the artworks was obvious. It was necessary, as we do on a daily basis, to use what was available, to leave room for chance, to look for bits of wood, remnants of resin plaster, boards, scrap metal, saddles, armatures from my previous works, wooden boxes for shipments, previously used for other purposes, to assemble them in a different way and to look for a balance, as I do with my decomposed pieces of bronze, between the sculptures and these spontaneous pedestals which carry with them the natural patina of the workshop.

Welcome to the Sculptureval studio-gallery

Opening speech of Val's new studio (May 2013)

Anatomy of a creative path by French sculptor Val - Valérie Goutard - at Yishu8 foundation with Sculptureval

“Anatomy of a creative path” at Yishu8 Foundation in November 2015

To enlarge – strictness and freedom (Speech of Val at Yishu8 foundation in Beijing in November 2015)

My work originates from years of observing nature that feeds an intuition of the world that I transform into a fulfilment.

My search is forever going forward, my thoughts are not frozen in time but form a meandering path. Each new sculpture is a completion and a promise.

My work is the manifestation of my intuition regarding man and the world.

I represent man, immortal who succeeds one another, generation after generation. I am talking about man as a human, male or female, anyone in quest of beauty, of answers. I represent nature, the vibrations it awakens in me, the inseparability of man and nature, and through my voids I invite nature to have an active part in the multiplicity of possible interpretations. [ + ]

Throughout my sculptures, I seek the élan vital (creative impetus) captured at a given moment in a sense of balance, of rightness, of harmony, just as one sometimes recognizes a moment to be right.

The creative act results from both a dialogue with the matter and the listening to the resonance of an inner space.

Time went by between the initial creation and the fulfilment of its enlargement, sometimes several years. A certain waiting period between the two is essential for a certain internalization and ripening of the project.

Enlargement, by its demanding nature, made me take a giant leap forward. Enlargement is an explosion of the formerly matured creation. It is about developing a new life from nurture and requires much more refining of the inside work; the past life having already been assimilated.

Time passes between the idea of large scale creation, the arranging of a framework, and the achievement of the sculpture. I need to ally utmost rigour with intense concentration for a longer period, whilst preserving spontaneity in the gesture. I must start right, the skeleton must be perfectly positioned. Large scales do not allow mistakes: the volumes at stake are too substantial, and the proportion ratio, the lines, the primary structure, the attitude suggestions, imperatively have to be accurate and placed from the beginning. I have to be quick, sense the elbow angle right away, the right curve of a buttock; my character’s attitude has to vibrate throughout the creation.

A mistake would result in retracing my steps, destroying to start again, which would disrupt the primary energy of the matter which only reveals its living aspect if the sculpture spontaneously emanates from the first impulse. The sculpture will then carry a life force to be preserved throughout the process, in order to see its true bronze representation.

A certain apprehension always creeps over me before starting, I lock in. To create is to dive into oneself, like meditating through the gesture, by abstracting from our environment, a dialogue beyond the course of time between hands and matter.

Developing an increasingly sharpened concentration over a longer length of time opens new internal doors. By losing oneself in the gesture, we get closer to a certain acuteness, extrasensory perception, a kind of lucidity beyond appearances, an open door to the imaginary and the dream, and the creative framework widens.

When working with dimensions beyond the reality sphere, stepping into the imaginary becomes easy. My characters gain in joyful liberty, they fly away, love one another. This world bordering the dream, this invitation of voids within the creation, annihilate the oppressiveness or even the monstrousness that lies in an oversized representation of man. Expressing balance, harmony, fragility, emotion, sensed vibrations, and the infinite inwardness through large scale implies defying the laws of gravity. The sculpted void acquires an increased significance, as an indispensable deciphering element of the sculpture.

For Attraction, the oval arches appear to be in motion by the presence of void between them. The consciousness of this void suggests they float, hanging in suspension. According to the laws of physics, the ribbon-shaped arches can only float if they are in motion. Void therefore implies the idea of movement. The formation emphasizes this vibration of the movement by randomly gripping the light and enabling the eye to land with surprise.

The sharpened formation at large scale of the characters or the architecture with its full and empty forms, offers visual breathing spaces in the volume perception, whilst not in the least preventing the demanding precision of the line. The impaired, the unfinished, implies a movement from the time passing, a certain mystery of life.

To enlarge – strictness and freedom (Speech of Val at Yishu8 foundation in Beijing in November 2015)

My work originates from years of observing nature that feeds an intuition of the world that I transform into a fulfilment.

My search is forever going forward, my thoughts are not frozen in time but form a meandering path. Each new sculpture is a completion and a promise.

My work is the manifestation of my intuition regarding man and the world. [ + ]

The creative act results from both a dialogue with the matter and the listening to the resonance of an inner space.

Text of Val about her work with Murano glass in 2015 and 2016

Proud to preserve and maintain their ancestral craft, the Murano glass masters, passionate about the medium they use daily, welcomed me into their sanctuary and made me feel like part of their congregation throughout my working time with them.

In my studio and in the months leading up to my trip, I drew numerous sketches to develop and share my ideas with the glass masters, preparing molds, characters and bronze objects to insert into my future glass creations.

Time is not the same when I work with glass. Hesitation ceases to exist, you have to be quick, and you have to make instant decisions. The materials and the kiln set the pace. Unlike the bronze works, which take form over a period of time, the glass works need to be conceptualised beforehand. I have to develop the form and the narrative in advance. [ + ]

Text of Val about her work with Murano glass in 2015 and 2016

After my experience in Murano, I was fully immersed into the creation of two monumental projects : Ocean utopia and Du chaos à la sagesse. During this time, several boxes arrived from Italy. When opening them myself, I rediscovered, piece by piece, the result of my glass creations. The beauty of the glass caught my eye and captured my soul.

Each glass block suggests me a story, I forgot my original intentions to focus on what it tells me today. Every single piece of glass seems unique to me, each has its own story that brought it there in my hands, having this particular form, this particular transparency, these marks related to the manipulation of matter that I desired to preserve during the polishing stage. Each sculpture will carry its own history, the joy of achievement, the discovery of a new universe.

I let myself be carried away by what the glass suggests to me to complete my narrative with bronze, a tailored work giving an extra dimension to each of my stories.

With glass, there is a strong focus on the essential. Reality is not what it seems to be, there is something beyond reality, an almost sacred spiritual dimension.

Working on my sculptures, I do not understand everything that is happening, but I sense that something is taking place, suggested worlds, worlds that sometimes we sense but no one knows about. Glass showcases countless representations of a certain reality, renders its materiality void.

The presence of bronze worlds enhances the mystery of these glass worlds. The light and shadows show the multiplicity of perceptible realities, possible ones.

All these materials are “trompe l’oeil”, illusionist. They fuel the idea of the labyrinth where one loses one’s bearings. They open into an imaginary world, an unknown world which we sense is in existence. They are changing and disturbing reflections.

French sculptor Val - Valérie Goutard - in Murano glass workshop with Sculptureval

Val at ARS glass workshop in Murano (Italy)

“Anatomy of a creative path” at CAFA Museum in March 2016

Speech of Val at the museum of CAFA in Beijing in March 2016

For me as a French sculptor, being exhibited today at the CAFA is a great honour and a source of great happiness.
A great honour to see my work in this beautiful architecture, in this exhibition hall place of culture and art so important in China.
And I thank all the people who made this project possible, Mr. Fan D’Ian, Chairman of the Chinese Central Academy of Fine Art, Mrs. Christine Cayol, Chairman of Yishu 8 Foundation and Mr. Philippe Staib founder and director of the Philippe Staib Gallery who defends and has a deep love for sculpture and monumental sculpture.

A great happiness to live such a beautiful illustration of the universal nature of art, one of the many bridges between East and West.

I felt the happiness of traveling and discovery from my childhood, the readings of authors of all nationalities, of all periods of history, the observation of nature in its fantastic diversity feed me, shape my soul, sharpen my reflection. [ + ]

Speech of Val at the museum of CAFA in Beijing in March 2016

Val by Val

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