From mechanical constraint to the narrativity of the gesture Using materials traditionally employed in construction (plasterboard, sheet metal, lead), he is…
From mechanical constraint to the narrativity of the gesture Using materials traditionally employed in construction (plasterboard, sheet metal, lead), he is interested in their physical properties, their resilience, their remanence… which are measured through mechanical stress. This notion, used in materials science, assesses the elastic and plastic capacity of an element to absorb effects of torsion, tension or pressure. Florian Pugnaire draws on certain specificities (the suppleness of lead, the resistance of metal, the fragility of plasterboard), to which he imposes a working force that can sometimes drive the materials to their breaking point. To do so, the artist uses mechanical tools such as straps, winches, hoists and hydraulic jacks, which sometimes become an integral part of the work. This equipment is diverted from its ordinary use in order to impose constraints and deformations, creating a plastic vocabulary whose industrial aesthetic, here tormented, tends towards collapse, ruin and degradation… Florian Pugnaire’s works could be the vestiges of the struggle he wages with matter, for he regards the studio as the place where he practises the battle of art: there he confronts the elements in a fight where each round tests their respective physical capacities. His approach to sculpture is therefore fundamentally defined by a performative dimension, characterised by action and the involvement of the body. In this way his sculptures are haptic works: touch and the perception of oneself within the environment are at the centre of his process. While in his duo practice with David Raffini he explores the sculptural field through monumental installations or “event-works”, he produces works on a more human scale individually. The question of process is nonetheless central to both practices, which we might call action-sculpture ¹: just as in action painting, the gesture matters more than the result. View of the exhibition Mechanical Stress, Florian Pugnaire, Sept 2016 Photo © François Fernandez There is in his practice a form of indeterminacy, since experience directs the process: his sculptures are at once reproducible (once their manufacturing process has been established) and singular, for each one is the result of a unique action. From this perspective, Florian Pugnaire’s practice belongs to the theory of Anti-form ² advanced by Robert Morris and grouping artists such as Eva Hesse, Bruce Nauman or Barry Flanagan: to produce his works, he does not seek a precise figure but finds his form by manipulating the material. Formal affinities with the work of Eva Hesse are moreover sometimes striking: his sheets of metal constrained by a metal frame (Sans titre, 2016) echo Aught (1968), a piece made of plastic sheeting held against the wall by a frame of tape. But his combative approach to process distances him from the soft works of Anti-form: his sculptures are dynamic, at times visually violent, even violated. Florian Pugnaire therefore proposes…
