Entering Ææa – An Exhibition by Diane Alexandre and Camille Cornillon

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Like Circe who transformed her prison, the island of Ææa, into a place of abundance and life, Diane and Camille reinvent the idea of a domestic sanctuary where each room becomes an altar charged with symbols of protection. They summon antagonistic figures who meet and join strength. Bulls and wolves clash with the fragility of porcelain, lions coexist with flies and snakes. But they all live in harmony. Each poison being its own cure.

Diane Alexandre ©Eftihia Stefanidi

Diane Alexandre, through the evocation of fauna, flora and minerals in her sculptures, weaves a connection between humans and their environment. Her richly textured pieces recall the raw beauty of Nature while embodying organic forms that seem to breathe. Each sculpture becomes the guardian of a personal space, a protector, an armor against human madness. An invitation to come back to a symbiotic coexistence with wild life. Diane says “As a young child, I felt an early connection to what adults would call “inanimate objects”. Threes, rocks, plants, exuded something close to emotion and I thought I could sense it. I started my pagan silent conversation without dissociating vegetal, mineral, animal and human. Everything seemed to me held together by a same emotion.”

Camille Cornillon’s work is an endless back and forth between disaster and banality. Through her eyes and hands, everyday objects acquire the power of narration and the vernacular rises to the height of myth. A hunting scene is happening right before our eyes on a table, fire is about to set on in the mouth of a still snake.

Camille Cornillon photographed in her studio ©Jeanne Chardin

Fatality is mired in randomness. Lines are blurred between what is considered eventfulness and insignificance. She masters deep shades and patinas, and in the true tradition of Baudelaire, makes gold with figures associated traditionally with mud. The underdogs of symbolism adorn themselves with the luster of sophistication, snakes and flies crawl around, looking holy and magical.

Together, Diane and Camille  question the notion of sacred space, redefining a way to create one’s own temple.