I came back to France end of August after packing the past 10 years of my life in Australia. I followed an impulse leading me to the north-east of France in a family farm close to Epinal, the city I was born in. The last time I visited this house I was taken by two main feelings. The first one was a strong desire to shift things in a place where objects and memories seemed motionless, almost trapped. This house was actually given to me 10 years ago. I felt like the inheritant of a story that needed a new direction. My second response manifested as a type of inspiration to create something there. It seemed obvious to me I had something to live and do there.
Getting into a creative process was not an easy ride when I arrived. I first felt a kind of pressure to make a move and put the house for sale. It seemed it was my task to close this family chapter. Coming to that decision was painful, my tears seemed to process things that were beyond (and probably pre) my own story.
In August and September I dived into boxes of past objects and documents, those of my deceased brother and father and and my own as lots of life have been kept there. The emotions were quite intense and I couldn’t enter any process of recording the experience. It was deep, personal and at that time not of the domain of explicit worldly language.
I therefore engaged in drawing and painting, when I could. I was after a physical expression of my relationship to this place and time, not aiming for anything in particular, letting creative impulse lead the way.
It all started with a tree, my father planted years ago.
Process photograph , Jarmenil, 14 Septembre 2023
