10 Questions with Céline Sicard
Celine Sicard's first steps in the art world came through land art installations ten years ago. Since these first land art installations, for which she took vacations, she decided to dedicate herself entirely to the artistic process.
After a degree in agricultural engineering and professional experience in the production and trade of agricultural products for eight years, she resumed training in ceramics and basketry: arts that she had never developed before but in which she had always been interested.
In 2019 the Collectif 1.5 was born. For the moment, composed of one person, it is open to anyone whose last name equals 1.5 (her name is Sicard, in French, it means 6/4, or 1.5).
All her projects have in common the desire to surprise the visitor with unexpected visions that invite to a poetic or shifted journey. She develops ceramic animations for all ages and degrees in parallel to her personal artistic projects. What she can bring through these hours of creation enriches, in return, her project: the ideas come from the most unexpected places.
Céline Sicard portrait
ARTIST STATEMENT
Masks have existed for thousands of years on all continents. Useful or ritual, they translate the soul, human or animal: the face translates emotions and intentions.
Céline Sicard borrows from various techniques to create contemporary masks as an intuitive artist. All her pieces have a ceramic base. As an ancestral art widely used in the world, it sublimates nature to model the dream. She plays with this creative process at the interface between art and nature, between the useful and the useless. She only uses engobes, colored clays, which she eventually covers with a transparent glaze to keep a natural aspect.
In the same way, she associates most of the time basketry to her pieces, made of plants gleaned in her region. Here again, this ancestral practice allows her to use what nature offers to create new objects in the simplest way. Thus adorned with plant hair, her masks take life: the rigidity of the ceramic becomes moving, living.
Giving life to contemporary art pieces, from two ancestral technics usually used in the conception of utilitarian objects, represents for Céline Sicard all the strength of what these materials can offer. This modernity in objects of ancestral inspiration and composed of the most natural materials raises the surprise of the visitor.
Hiver, Ceramic, Lagurus ovatus, 30x30 cm, 2021 © Céline Sicard
INTERVIEW
You come from an engineering and agricultural background, and you started your artistic career with land art. How did you develop into the artist you are today?
I think everybody has an artistic talent, which can be expressed or not. I am always very impressed by the creativity of very young children. When we grow up, that artistic field can be developed or not. For my part, I have always loved creating something. My first professional life, which was very time-consuming, has been very frustrating for my artistic needs. However, I lived in Paris, and I spent a lot of time in museums: discovering tribal art in Quai Branly, modern art in Beaubourg, very playful and inventive exhibitions in Tokyo Palace, and 104. This refined my artistic sensitivity. In parallel, I created some land art installations outside of Paris and oakmoss tags in Paris streets. This was a real pleasure, and when I took more time for that activity, I kept that game with natural materials and the wish to surprise the visitor.
What is your personal aim as an artist today? And what are the main themes behind your work?
After 8 years behind a computer, writing analysis read only by a few people and very quickly expired, I really wanted to create objects that create emotions for many people. Like the butterfly's flight, I hope it can change a little aspect of one person's day: a smile, a questioning, a feeling.
All my project plays with the environment: with two very natural materials, the masks are playing with nature: it appears through the subject (animal...), the graphic design, the "hairs"...
La ligne, Ceramic, wild oats, 25x30 cm - frame 40x50 cm, 2021 © Céline Sicard
What aspect of your work do you pay particular attention to?
Like many people, I am very concerned about the environmental crisis. I pay much attention to the environmental footprint of all my work: the clay comes from France, the colors and enamels are non-toxic, plants for basketry are gleaned in my garden or in the neighborhood. I try to keep my pieces as natural as possible.
Where do you find inspiration for your work and what is your creative process like?
All my pieces are masks. Of course, everybody knows tribal masks from Africa. But all the continents and many ages had their own masks, ritual or utilitarian. Obviously, this is one big part of my inspiration. But I like to mix that very old tradition with very distant themes. This second part of inspiration comes from everywhere: kids, paintings, nature, films. However, I always want to keep my masks the most natural/simple as possible so that the different inspirations are easily noticeable.
Your masks are a contemporary version of traditional ritual masks. How did you come up with this idea?
I spent 6 months in Benin in 2006, and I loved the masks I saw. I bought one, but never hooked it up, because it gave a very specific "tribal aspect" to the room, very different from all the furniture I had. I think I kept that in my mind, and during the first year of ceramics lessons, I tried to create a mask I could use to decorate my home. It was the first of a long series.
La Peste, Ceramic, woven basketry, raffia, wildoats, 45x35x30 cm, 2021 © Céline Sicard
Le postiche, Ceramic, raffia, 25x30 cm, 2021 © Céline Sicard
The masks are made out of ceramic, but also use basketry. How did you choose the techniques to incorporate into your masks?
During my first professional life, I was very interested by those two crafts. So during my reconverting, I took at the same time ceramics and basketry lessons. I really wanted to mix both because they are so complementary: they come from nearby nature. Clay is very malleable and can be used to create any form you want, but once cooked, it is frozen. Basketry, on the contrary, is much more technical, but once it is worked, it still can move, giving the ceramic a lively character.
Is there anything you would like to experiment with? Any new technique or format you would like to incorporate in your work?
I am currently in partnership with a "fablab", a manufacturing workshop, where I am experimenting with adding other equipments or creating some reacting masks. My main wish is to question the duality between nature and processed products. It is, for the moment, very experimental, but I think it can bring a new aspect to my work.
Le taureau de Cerynie, Ceramic, 20x30 cm - frame 40x50 cm, 2021 © Céline Sicard
What about the public? Did you experience any change or improvement over the last couple of years? Do you think people are more attentive now than pre-Covid?
It is hard to say, as I started my activity in March 2020. But I noticed that people enjoy some of life's little pleasures that they didn't remark before. They are more attentive to the environment they live in. We saw it during the last communal elections in France and the real estate market: people want to reconnect with nature, with slow lives. I think the arts can take advantage of it: people are more sensitive to emotions.
What are you working on now, and what are your plans for the future in terms of new projects?
I have two projects for this year: the first one, as explained previously, is to add another material for reacting masks or more denouncing pieces.
My second project concerns a garden for 2023: with an architect and a gardener, we are working on a garden that imbues the visitor with a sensory experience.
Soleil à l’aube, Ceramic, woven basketry, raffia, 40x40 cm, 2022 © Céline Sicard
Finally, as we just started 2022, what are three things you would like to achieve this year?
In parallel to the artistic projects, I reserve time to ceramic animations for all ages: schools, universities, retirement homes. We are disconnected from the ancient gestures of the craft, and I think it is important for all people to rediscover it. I would like to give that possibility to other public: prisons, specialized houses. Secondly, I would like to create an event with artists from different artistic fields (theatre, circus, etc.). Discussions are in progress.
Finally, I would like to collaborate with the Tourism Office of my village to offer the tourists a "masks hunt" in the streets of the village. I began to hang a few masks that are not perfect (cracked, big default of color...) in the streets of my village (a nice Cote d'Azur old village), as a kind of Street Art. But, again, the objective here is to create a surprise and to communicate with a broader public.
