Aurelian Froment

The second presentation was by French artist, Aurélien Froment. Based originally in Paris he now lives and works out of Dublin. The first piece mentioned in the presentation was a piece titled ‘A la fin’. This piece was made while he was still an art student. The piece involved the artist positioning himself outside a movie theater and handing out cards printed with different movie endings to people going to view a film. By doing so Froment raises the question that an ending is inevitable however there is still a question of when it will happen and what exactly will happen. This piece stemmed from his time working in a movie theater and greatly reflected on a point he mentioned that I found most interesting which was, “The job that you do as an artist greatly influences the work you do as an artist”. For me this point can be clearly seen throughout work Froment makes and also in the materials he used to make it.

Froment then went on to show ‘Pulmo Marina’. This piece consists of an egg-yolk jellyfish drifting against a stark blue background while all the time a voiceover is played in the background. The video itself has an almost hypnotic quality about it in its use of bright colours, slow trance like movement of the jellyfish and also the relaxing hum of the voiceover as it explains the creature. Froment also explained that the screen on which the short film is being viewed mirrors the way in which the viewer sees the jellyfish in its aquarium state and plays with the idea of the viewer, whose view would ultimately change by viewing the fish in its aquarium state with a group atmosphere as opposed to the private experience they would have by viewing it on a screen.

The last piece I want to mention is a piece titled ‘The Second Gift’. This piece features Friedrich Froebel’s second gift, an educational object, and is filmed while slowly rotating. While the film is rotating there is also narration from Norman Brosterman, a toy collector who researches Froebel’s objects, Tiffeni Goesel a kindergarten teacher, and Scott Bultman, a former toy manufacturer. The film looks at ways of tracing an object, from what it is made to how it is made, from what it refers in the history of forms to what it allows to project. He then showed how he set the piece up for exhibition and I found most intriguing as he explained how he encountered and tried to overcome problems he faced when displaying this particular work. For the display he had a replica of Froebel’s second gift set up on a table to encourage the viewer to interact with the piece, however as it was in a galley context the viewer merely thought that the way the artist had set the piece up was how he had attended to show it and therefore did not know that interaction was meant. To overcome the problem the artist had to organize certain times at which certain people would in a sense ‘perform’ and interact with the piece to show that is what he wanted.

Overall the presentation was very interesting and it raised questions about my own practice but also helped me to understand and answer them at the same time and his point that ‘Everything I make allows me to make something after, so I am not left with a blank page’ is also something I will be taking into my own practice in the future.