Caroline Mauxion

Caroline Mauxion composes images and reflects on their material existence, notably by making prints on paper, glass, or plaster. In her recent photographs, she places intimate parts of the body, obviously beloved, in tight, fractured, and superimposed shots, veiling and unveiling part of a hand, a breast, a buttock. Stimulated by new readings, she is transposing her research into space and exploring the potential of sculpture.

In fact, the challenge she set for her spring residency at Est-Nord-Est: was to put down her camera. She had brought some large- and medium-size photographs, which she pinned to the walls of the studio to get the conversation going. But the idea was to leave the beaten path – to engage in the calculated risk of a bit of vertigo, a slight discomfort.

First, she worked with plaster, casting it in plastic sheets that were heated in places, or gently pressing it into balls with her fingers. The resulting cylindrical and rectangular masses and the series of irregular balls, coloured in pale pinks, beiges, and blues, have undeniable aesthetic qualities. Then she mastered metal, much less easy to deal with. Aided by the technician, she cut and folded strips to bear and extend the plaster pieces.

In the studio, the work therefore consisted of creating an encounter between the organic, silken, sensual plaster elements and the fine metallic strips. Mauxion played with masses and lines, seeking a delicate balance and a boundary between abstract composition and the evocation of figures, such as that of detached parts of bodies, which returned here once again. Drawing on her personal experiences, as revealed in her photographs, and on the words, images, and sensations suggested in Monique Wittig’s The Lesbian Body, which she brought with her to the residency, Mauxion continued her increasingly self-assured contemplation of the body and its relationship with the world and with life.