The Treasure (I & II, 2013 – 2018).

There’s the enjoyment of being a pirate, while taking advantage of the fact that the transposition of the image by hand breaks copyright laws. I work like this, no property threatens my appropriations… Because of the disparity of image resolutions, some objects and planes are blurred, others sharp, for reasons that are not optical but computer-related. I like the idea that the sharpness of an object depends on the level of compression with which its image enters the stream.

Moreover, the Treasure is executed in gouache on paper, the poor relative of painting. Gouache doesn’t set. Paper drinks water and pigments settle on its surface. It’s the medium of illustrators and cartoonists, not painters… Take a damp sponge and you can remove that pigment, erasing the image! It’s as delicate as pollen. I conceived the Treasures as derisory vanities hidden behind the precision and delicacy of its image. A sandcastle that the rising tide could erase.

Excerpt from interview with H.L. (“Le Trésor”, 2018).