GALERIA AZUR MADRID
a
< Caroline Clastres
France

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BIOGRAPHY

I am a self-taught conceptual artist working primarily in expanded painting, researching the extent of cognitive materialism.
With a background in literature and a longstanding engagement with
philosophy and existential thought, my practice explores the relationship
between matter, perception and existence. Combining painting, texture and
mixed media, my work is rooted in the belief that materialisation can generate a bridge for perception when the mind alone, itself at times, cannot.

ARTISTIC PRACTICE

Driven by a lifelong burning obsession with matter and its understanding, my practice almost subsequently came with the urge to correlate matter to the mind’s dynamics. Whether it be to uncover the limitations of this research or to revel at the intricate beauty of cognitive mechanisms.
Since I started painting within my own paradigm a few years ago, expanded oil painting became my voice, while exploring conceptual entanglements between mind and matter.

CV

EDUCATION

– Baccalauréat Littéraire
– Université du Mirail Toulouse , DEUG Lettres Modernes, 2009
– London College of Communication – University of the Arts London, BA(Hons) of Journalism, 2014
– London College of Communication – University of the Arts London, Postgraduate Degree in Public Relations, 2015

My very first encounter with paint was Watercolour painting, diametrically different from oil one must say. So subtle, so fragile, so poetic… I still hold it very dear to my heart, as it was introduced to me by my beloved grandmother, before I was even able to read or write.

STATEMENT

My artworks were born from a primal impulse to turn to matter when perspective had deserted me.
During a period of profound disheartenment, I became devoid of vision, unable to even imagine myself beyond my own condition.

TREADING WATER is the vision of the place I was in my psyche.
Matter became a space where consciousness had no authority.
It was also a place that I could create in order to become the witness rather than the subject.
I needed to materialise the vision I couldn’t reach.

Displacing myself into the small figure allowed me to witness what I could no longer see for myself.
Like a symbolic vessel that could bypass a broken conscience.

In giving the journey material form, possibility had to be tangible before it became conceivable.

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