Démarche artistique
Isa Barbier's work primarily derives from encountering, comprehending and interpreting a place. It is often site-specific to somewhere such as a chapel, castle, convent or seafront, but it could also be a more traditional museum or art gallery. The uniqueness of the location determines the appearance of the artwork.
Isa Barbier therefore mostly works in situ, displaying installations made of light, airy materials such as feathers, petals or mirrors arranged in geometric, architectural or dynamic forms. Her works appear to float in thin air.
Isa Barbier therefore mostly works in situ, displaying installations made of light, airy materials such as feathers, petals or mirrors arranged in geometric, architectural or dynamic forms. Her works appear to float in thin air.
As well as the suspended objects themselves, light, breath and air must be considered as fluctuating elements that contribute to the perception of the work and the way it floats.
The effect of these external elements is not incidental, it enhances the artistic endeavour just as much as the work itself. Thus Isa Barbier’s lively aerial installations never cease to reinvent themselves.
A different relationship with the work
“An installation of feathers is a nebulous object that can’t even be captured by photography. Its memory is always failing, sketchy and one-sided. These airy sculptures only appear to be fragile. An appropriate place away from disturbances, and simple and patient care and attention can make them last a lot longer than you would expect.
“Une installation de plumes est un objet insaisissable, même par la photographie, qui n’a qu’un rôle de mémoire toujours défaillante, partielle, partiale. Ces sculptures d’air n’ont qu’une apparente fragilité. Un lieu propice à l’écart des tumultes, des soins simples et patients peuvent leur donner le temps de vie qu’on veut bien leur concéder.
Les fils peuvent être démêlés, les cires vérifiées entre deux doigts, les plumes peuvent être remplacées ou lavées. Toutes ces attentions sont un plaisir, aussi une contrainte. Pour la faire cesser, on peut défaire l’œuvre. Le grand volume se réduira alors en une poignée de plumes à déposer dans une “Boîte - Urne”. Plus tard, l’œuvre pourra être interprétée une nouvelle fois, au même endroit, en utilisant la “Partition” et les plumes mises en attente. L’œuvre est entre disparition et continuité. Sa vie dépend de nos gestes. Il faut oser la toucher, avec délicatesse, patience, souplesse pour la maintenir en vie, mais aussi accepter la fin de l’œuvre, un jour que l’on décidera ou un jour accident. Et trouver dans cette fin la beauté, la liberté. Un nouvel espace. Être devant cette vie suspendue, si vulnérable, et par là si précieuse, comme devant notre vie.” Isa Barbier
“Her feathers are all alike yet so different. False fractals. Like a number of similar elements, none of which are identical and all of which can be infinitely reconstructed. You can believe that she sees the particles dancing in rays of sunlight, and that, having an eye for it, she makes herself the messenger of the natural order, born by chance and of necessity.
Isa Barbier offers a world with the potential both for extension and obliteration. This movement is so volatile, this wave that disturbs the lines, this wind that deforms or breaks the body of her works, this sculpture of emptiness that does not fear nothingness brings us back to the space found between things, rather than the things themselves. Through her work she describes the idea of a shifting shape, as tenuous as it may be; which by moving, dispels the mirage of an eternal state, indissoluble, suspended in the world of ideas.
Like a footprint in the sand, this work effortlessly abandons the concept of death. And its weightlessness is caused not only by feathers, leaves or threads themselves, but also due to her method, which uses nothing that is not already there: remains fallen from the sky, reunited and linked to a place with a long history, perhaps a castle or a chapel. Nothing is removed from the world, nothing – or very little – is added, but the whole body is arranged differently. Isa Barbier appears to glide into the spaces that she works in, without damaging them.” Christine Rodès, June 2012
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES
Isa BARBIER
FRANCE
Born in 1945 in Cannes, Isa Barbier is a French artist who lives and works in between Marseille and Italy. She enrolled at the
École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs
in Nice in 1966 and later gained a joint honours degree in history and the history of art and archaeology from the
ISA BARBIER
