February 2013
A quick sketch of a dream upon waking:
- Two figures sitting in front of a fireplace, with a painting beside it.
- Above, a footbridge with a derailment-bound cart about to fall, dragging a man down with it,
- A table set for a meal.
I name the picture: Viaduct
A little later that morning, I add a small house — Satie’s house (I always associate Erik Satie with my father, who used to compose using his harmonies — a garden, books, a French window, a ladder, and an undefined shape above the figure on the left, who has relaxed considerably since the first sketch.
I name the painting: Inheritance
Laying out the composition in charcoal on canvas
- no horizon
- two fir trees
- A falling man copied from Cranach’s Hercules and Antaeus
- A soft, shapeless form between the head on the left and the little house
Then , I remove the table but preserve its direction by turning its edge into a stair step.
I want a slightly red sky like a Ouagadougou sky heavy with red ochre dust. I choose dark cobalt blue and vermilion red; for the waterfall, turquoise and light ultramarine. Satie’s house becomes Magritte’s house. The undefined shape has vanished.
The combination wrench is used to unbolt the chairs that are bolted into the void. I want to place it on the floor of the virtual room and give it major prominence. To achieve this, I decide to position it at 0.618 of the height and 0.618 of the width (the golden ratio: the perfect, symbolic, and remarkable proportion), in oblique symmetry to Antaeus’s hand pointing at the combination wrench.
Unfortunately, by placing the combination wrench at this exact spot (61.8 cm and 40.2 cm), it falls into the void, which completely alters the meaning of the painting.
I am then faced with two solutions to avoid losing the key:
– The first is to literally change the orientation of the painting and present it vertically, in which case the key rests on the steps.
It is so that the painting maintains its coherence in this vertical orientation that I turned the copy of René Magritte’s painting and the small black house. Thinking of René Magritte, I see the locomotive emerging from a fireplace, and I think of the viaduct that was very close to my bedroom when I was a child. On summer nights, when the window was left open, I was terrified that the steam locomotives—which made an insane amount of noise—would derail and crash into my bedroom.
— The second solution is to draw a second combination wrench.
Both solutions are compatible.
A little later, the second combination wrench drawn on the floor disappears beneath white paint.
Why is this viaduct made of a translucent material, and who is this falling man?
This combination wrench (In French, it’s the same word for keys and wrenches) is obsessing me, I need to unwind—adjustable wrench!!! (Note: « Clé à molette » in French plays on words)
08/03/2013
A month later, I give up on the locomotive in the fireplace, the ladder and the falling trolley.
I rename the painting, favoring the vertical orientation: Asymptote (towards infinity)
09/03/2013
Still in the vertical orientation, I want a second combination wrench (clé) on the floor of the room, visible only with a magnifying glass.
In this orientation, the man flies, floating as if in zero gravity;
In the horizontal orientation, the man falls.
The combination wrench becomes an adjustable wrench………. I am relaxed!
13/03/2013
The two seated figures have no ears. They are strapped to chairs bolted to empty space so they won’t fall when the painting is displayed vertically.
The figure with false eyelashes has their left and right hands swapped
The “real” figure points to the adjustable wrench, which symbolises manual work, making things, construction, dismantling and… unbolting.
07/04/2013
While scanning the sketches, I realize that the fireplaces look highly terrifying, and I think of Santa Claus who is supposed to arrive through there!
The road in the sky is a mixture of the Milky Way and a viaduct. The two fir trees are a clue to finding Christmas.
At the beginning of this attempt, in the second sketch, it is a gardener who is falling. In real life, this gardener has just broken my car window while clearing brush and refuses to contribute towards the cost of the repairs! The figure on the left is delighted to see him fall.
10/04/2013
Something tells me that Santa Claus is hiding someone else…
Boucher, the man who did work around the house back in the days of the steam locomotives? The same character found wearing an orange and green dress in « Le bras de mère ».
I am almost certain this man is the falling man…
Or perhaps José, a friend who died on a demolition site (see the painting Ellipse).
I am going to dig deeper into this path and quietly arrive at the deca-sense.
The two seated, passive figures are the same person at two different moments in time.
12/05/2013
I’m having a great time painting Antaeus’s bottom (son of Gaia, for the record).
I decide to give up on finishing this painting.
June 2013
I dream of a retaining wall made of monkeys.
In july 2013
I begin working on the retaining wall made of monkeys as a diptych, which I name La cellule.