3rd Prize – Contemporary Creation Call 2010

Creation – Olivier Nottellet, French artist born in 1963, living and working in France (Lyon). Weaving – Bernard Battu Workshop, Aubusson Dimensions: 3m high x 4m wide Low-warp tapestry, cotton warp, wool weft, fiberglass, rayon

“I mainly use black and white to work on the visual impact of the form while maintaining the paradox of a complex reading. The question of polysemy, the meanings of reading, the relationship between language and sign or stain—this underpins my work. It is precisely the entanglement, sometimes inextricable, that links memory, representation, evocation, retinal persistence […] that forms the foundation of my activity and could find in the art of tapestry an opportunity for a clever application. My drawings are made with Indian ink, and they accumulate in notebooks of classic formats. I then use this raw material to project, work, and play with their multiple possible meanings, their scales, and degrees of abstraction, until I turn them into gigantic wall paintings.”

Caught by the textile material of the tapestry, whether the eye focuses on details or larger ensembles, colors, spaces, lines, and stains are supported by the textures of the weaving, enhancing the spatial presence of the landscapes evoked.