Xavier Veilhan [solo exhibition] at Hatfield House, April 7 – September 12, 2012

PROMENADE

Rooted within the traditions of statuary, Xavier Veilhans builds his work around the same axis: the possibilities of representation and the art of the exhibition. His practice embraces exploration, process and invention as a means to simplicity and abstraction, treating generic objects and shapes of everyday life so that they appear without details, and resistant to any psychological insight.

“My objects seem to have shed details, as if the shapes have been compressed to store them in memory. I try to prefabricate the memory people will have; to give the viewer what he or she will have retranscribed.”

For Xavier, the art of the exhibition is one of his leitmotifs, the ultimate live performance where works function as part of a greater machinery.

“ I always thought gardens are perfect metaphors for art exhibitions, an organisation of scattered elements leading to a homogenic space and a coherent experience. When looking at a tree planted by a person who has disappeared a long time ago, a garden also reveals how society interacts with nature. The plant growing here is not just a plant, it is the shadow of our ancestor’s ambition he has left behind him.”

For more information please visit: http://www.hatfield-house.co.uk/