Island Compositions

Port-des-Barques

14.08.2025 – 14.10.2025

The exhibition Island Compositions focuses on Île Madame and in particular its landscape, which features both artificial and natural elements. Its purpose is to highlight the fragmented aspect of these places where man has mastered wild nature while preserving its beauty. It underlines the island’s emblematic and easily visible elements -the traditional fishing huts , the coastline, the flora. However, it combines them, on the same level, with less perceptible elements (geological or botanical details). The exhibition thus seeks to raise awareness of the beauty of nature’s details on different scales and by extension drawing attention to the importance of nature and its preservation.

All the works can be seen at the exhibition venue: Square Guy Rivière, 17730 Port-des-Barques

SUPERPOSITIONS

The traditional fishing huts and their square fishing nets are an emblematic architectural element of the Charente-Maritime region. Their geometric shapes contrast with the fluctuating nature that surrounds them, sea water, algae, rocks and sediments. The series explore this contrasting association by superimposing architectural and natural patterns. The colours used are those observed on the coastline of Île Madame. Their positioning reinforces the combination of human constructions and structures built by nature.

Watercolour and Rotring marker on watercolour paper. 297 mm x 420 mm

LAYERS

The foreshore corresponds to the part of the land covered and uncovered alternately at high and low tide. It is a transitional, intermediate, and liminal space. It is also a zone of exchange, where deposits and erosion take place. It is a place of perpetual change and constant fascination.
On Île Madame, the foreshore is marked by numerous strata that form levels and reliefs outlining horizontal landscapes. This series reproduces them in a minimalist manner, superimposed on the silhouette of Île Madame in reference to the natural structure to which they belong.

Watercolour and Rotring marker on watercolour paper. 210 mm x 297 mm

FRAGMENTS

The landscape of Île Madame is fragmented and this series interprets different patterns observed on site.
It combines the vertical forms of local plants with the horizontal silhouettes of the foreshore, rocks and soil, to highlight the visual, poetic, and aesthetic harmony between these elements opposed in their movements.
The lines present in some of the works represent the human influence on Île Madame. The distribution of the circles is inspired by phyllotaxis (the organization of plant leaves).
The six Fragments each correspond to a theme:

  • Stars (Crithmum maritimum)
  • Reflections (water)
  • Karst (limestone rocks)
  • Interstices (horizontal surface lines)
  • Intermezzo (foreshore)
  • Verticales (Dipsacus fullonum)

Watercolour and Rotring marker on watercolour paper. 297 mm x 420 mm