Through, June 25, the Musée Maurice Denis in Saint-Germain-en-Laye will be presenting six sculptures by Cécile Raynal that form a concise overview of the artist’s body of work. The pieces are placed throughout the museum to interact with the works shown as part of another exhibition, “Femme(s)”.
The six Raynal sculptures in the “Rêve(s) de Filles” show attest to the myriad sources that inspire the artist’s work: literature (“Arbre-Monde III”), myths and fairy tales (“Daphné”), philosophy and spirituality (“Un Christ”) and, of course, all her encounters over the course of her sculpture practice.
After all, the sculpture of Cécile Raynal is first and foremost the result of the encounters she has had during her residencies, which guide and inform her output. For the last 10 years, the sculptor has set up remote studios in places that are usually hidden from view: a prison, a retirement home, a convent, a container ship and more. In these spaces, she molds clay into portraits of the men and women who take the time to sit for her. In the exchange that arises from these face-to-face interactions, the subjects share life stories, which the artist imprints in the medium.
In her 2018 book “Mémoires de Braise”, Cécile Raynal wrote of this singular practice, “…ignorance and surprise are my main tools. When the obvious falls away, the very idea of familiarity and routine is swept away, leaving room for unexpected forms to emerge. An artist on a cargo ship, in a prison or in a hospital first experiences a kind of strangeness, a feeling that reminds you that the obvious is only one point of view, that being astonished by the world is salutary, and that art can only come when one shifts one’s gaze.”
She alternates these residencies with stints at her studio in Normandy, where her experiences elsewhere give birth to other forms and types of storytelling. It is in this space and this solitary practice that she developed the bestiary and the gallery of hybrid creatures – half human, half animal – that now populate her work.
The first piece that greets visitors to the exhibition is also the most recent. It is not a portrait, at least not in the literal sense of the word: “Arbre-Monde III” (2022/2023) is a reference to the Richard Powers novel (The Overstory, the French title being L’Arbre-monde), which is directly related to the living and, by extension, to humans. Indeed, is it not true that the theme of “World Tree”, which the artist has already explored several times, alludes to mythology with its cosmic tree connecting the different parts of the universe?
The other work shown on the ground floor, in the chapel’s vestibule, addresses a less common subject in the artist’s work: the crucifixion of Christ. “Un Christ” (2021) began as a private commission and takes considerable liberties with classic depictions: although the position is certainly that of a crucified person, the arms are not nailed to the cross. “I could not nail a man down. Undoubtedly because a man nailed to the cross cannot give an embrace. And it seemed to me this man wanted to embrace humans,” the artist writes.
The four works displayed on the first floor are all portraits of women: Daphne, a character from Greek mythology (“Daphné”, 2021); Nancy Houston, a literary figure and friend of the artist (“Par la Peau”, 2021); and two enigmatic portraits.
“Réparés” (2018) is an installation that shows a woman surrounded by three foxes. Created as part of a residency at the Musée des Arts et Métiers, the work pays tribute to a young woman who survived the Bataclan terrorist attack and sports a fox tattoo on her shoulder in memory of her partner who was murdered in the attack. The animal’s role here echoes the artist’s own comments about the role of animals in her body of work: “I sculpt around the great silences between Man and Beast, and I also imagine the way we all cry out in the face of disaster. Nothing is explicit, but when I build them I want to mix in the threat, the shell, the crutch, the waiting, the caress.”
The shell, the crutch and the waiting are also themes hinted at in “Rêve de Fille” (2016), the only bronze piece in the exhibition: a young woman sits on a high stool, arms and legs crossed, giving the viewer a look at a faceless body, with a hollowed and pierced interior. Dream of nightmare? Girl or monster? Cécile Raynal’s sculptures do not aim to please, but rather to show the reality of lived experiences, some of which are painful and to which it would be easier to turn a blind eye. Showing what lies under the skin. Contemplating these works, one hears the quote from Charles Péguy: “We must always tell what we see. Above all, and this is more difficult, we must always see what we see.”
Rêve(s) de filles, sculptures by Cécile Raynal
March 25 – June 25, 2023
Maurice Denis Museum
2 bis, rue Maurice Denis, 78100 Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France.
