2025
Le Centre Pompidou-Metz, Paris, France
https://collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/cl020513320
Count Charles de Clarac’s drawing titled Forêt Vierge du Brésil (Virgin Forest of Brazil) is considered to be the first depiction of a Brazilian rainforest. This image inspired other artists and writers in the 19th century, including Alexander von Humboldt, who noted the flaws in its proportions while praising its “organic sense of detail immanent to the totality of nature.” The only artistic work by the Count de Clarac, it was created from sketches of plants and trees made during his trip to Brazil with a scientific expedition from Luxembourg, as well as in Prince Maximilien’s greenhouses in Germany. The Count de Clarac subsequently became curator of Antiquities at the Louvre and continued drawing to illustrate the publications he produced there.
I have had the opportunity to travel and work in Brazil in recent years, particularly in the Amazon. In response to this drawing, as well as the history it connects to, I decided to produce three variations, using different analog and digital processes. A drawing is an image. Two variations of the same drawing is a comparison. Three form a sequence. I would like this sequence of images to evoke the truncated movement of a stutter.
When I look at this drawing, I notice the patch of light filtering through the trees, the snake rearing up, the bow being drawn, and the way each plant stands out while blending into its background. I think of Humboldt’s writing on the sounds of the forest at night, when the darkness is filled with the murmur of “life stirring and making itself heard.” And I realize that even a forest of lines and symbols can bear witness to the expansion of infinite things.
Installation view
Centre Pompidou-Metz, Metz (FR)
Photo: Marc Domage