Charles Petillon is a French artist and photographer. His work consists mainly of installations with a prominent occurrence of white balloons, which he either photographs, or installations using white spheres.
SP: Who/ where do you draw your inspiration from?
CP: I deal with subjects that we come across without necessarily paying attention to them in our daily life. It can be architecture, consumer objects, social themes, philosophical themes.
SP: Where do you position yourself as an artist in the contemporary times?
CP: I have no idea, I don’t think I’m the best person to answer it. What I can say is that I am influenced by landart, but my artwork is not landart.
SP: Your art practice is so dynamic, comprising a multi layering of objects, installations, and photography. How do you manage the indexicality of the mediums in your work?
CP: My artwork is essentially split into 2 parts:
– ephemeral installations of balloons which are created only to be photographed, or installations of balloons in public spaces.
– The perennial installation made of aluminum and polyethylene spheres.
SP: What is the significance of balloons in your artwork? And why the colour white?
CP: The use of balloons is interesting because it contrasts the delicacy and fragility of this medium with the roughness of the places of the installations. The balloon is an universal object, it is simple, accessible and we know its dimensions and proportions.
The color white was essential from the start because it is neither rich nor poor and evokes rest and a form of tranquility. The whiteness reinforces the opposition, the contrast and the absurdity with the materials of the place of shooting.
SP: Why do you call your photographs as Invasions?
CP: Because it is the sensation that the balloons produce when they overflow the space, as they saturate it.
SP: What is the Politics of your practice?
CP: I have set myself a number of rules for several years.
For my photographs, for example, I always frame horizontally. I rarely take pictures in grey weather. I only use biodegradable balloons. There must be no trace of me passing through the place of installation. (no waste)
SP: How do you decide your venus for photography? What is the process of your staged photography?
CP: The choice of places to create the installations is fundamental. I attach as much importance to the choice of place as to the choice of subject, because the place and the subject are one. The space in which I install my balloons becomes constitutive of the work. Further, the installation creates a kind of dialogue with the space.
SP: Your work reminds me of Doris Salcedo’s “1550 Chairs Stacked Between Two City Buildings”? Are there any parallels you draw from the work/artist?
CP: I’m not sure, because Doris Salcedo uses domestic materials charged with meaning, while I use domestic materials as raw material and not for what they represent or for their meanings.
SP: Any ongoing project or obsession you would like to share with us?
CP: I’m not talking about work in progress because I never know if it’s going to be successful or not.
Image Courtesy: Charles Petillon
Find more about the Artist and the artworks:
https://www.charlespetillon.com/
