FKDL
YESTERDAY'S NEWSPAPERS, TODAY'S MEMORIES
January 2018 – 1491 words
FROM URBAN ART TO SCOTCH ART
How did you get started in urban art?
In 2006, as part of the "Aux Arts Citoyens" exhibition, the event organizers offered me the opportunity to present my collage technique using transparent tape. That's how I found myself participating in an exhibition with urban artists, even though I wasn't one myself!
After a few months, I switched to street art, creating a dedicated family of characters. Over time, these figures grew, and I began to dress them. I never used Scotch tape in street art, but rather traditional collage techniques, using wallpaper paste.
When working on canvas, I pay closer attention to the qualities of varnishes and glues, and I keep my manufacturing secrets.
Could you elaborate on this Scotch Art technique, an interesting material that allows you to play with accumulation and transparency, and on the reason why you registered your trademark with the INPI?
I registered FKDL as a trademark even before I set foot in the urban art world, when I started doing Scotch Tape Art in 2000. It's a technique I've associated my name with, but it's not my invention. I don't own this form of creation, which was first invented by Gil Joseph Wolman. He died in 1995; I never knew him, but I was fortunate enough to speak with Villeglé, who had done several exhibitions with him. A French filmmaker, visual artist, poet, and writer, he was close to Guy Debord.
My name is now associated with a technique of applying adhesive tape, simply because of my name. But I've introduced many people to this technique, and as soon as I demonstrate it, they learn it. It's also a great way to connect and share, especially when there's a language barrier. I don't have the soul of a teacher, but I like the idea of passing on knowledge, sharing, and exchanging ideas.
What is your creative process when you create works for the street?
For street art, I work with colored tablecloths on which I draw a figure, the body of which I then cover with collages from old magazines dating from the 1920s to the 1970s. I prepare everything in my studio so as not to waste time during installation. Mixing glue and acrylic paint requires several drying stages that must be respected. For certain occasions, I sometimes create custom pieces to best integrate them into the urban landscape, just as I might use only paint if the work needs to be permanent. I enjoy collaborations on both canvas and walls, and I don't use spray paint.
WORK ON THE BODY AND MOVEMENT
The significant role of the human body in your work may reflect your various training backgrounds, whether in fashion or the circus.
From my earliest days, I've been creating characters. Currently, I'm working extensively on the gaze. My work is often revealed in three stages: first, the colored background; then, the form of the body; and finally, the collages within the character. All the gestures and physical dynamism found in my work are linked to the circus, even though I only became aware of this later. After graduating from high school, I spent a year studying fashion design and two years at circus school, which profoundly influenced my artistic journey.
Part of your job involves collecting the different media that will serve as your creative material.
Since my twenties, I have collected many images from magazines such as Cinémonde, Paris-Match, The Little Echoes of Fashion…A few years ago, I bought a huge stock of the magazine from a former bookseller My Film Dating from 1946 to 1958: what was fantastic was that every week there was a different sepia print! Since then, I sometimes spend days and days leafing through magazines to put together a series of images. Today my collection numbers over 10,000 copies of all kinds.
It is therefore linked to cinema.
I organized an exhibition at the Cinéma des Cinéastes, collaborating with four artists on the theme of the film poster. My initial idea was to create twenty-four canvases, like the number of frames per second in cinema, each poster being a nod to a genre, an actress, or a director. None of the artists knew what I was doing with the others. So there was a canvas on Alfred Hitchcock, one on Marilyn Monroe, one on Bette Davis, and another on American horror films of the 1950s in the style of George Romero. It's interesting to note that of the four participants, two were self-taught and two had studied at an art school, and this was evident in their approach and working process.
I also collaborate with the Pagnol family. They approached me in 2010 for the tenth anniversary of the Marcel Pagnol Prize, and since then I have created a painting every year for the literary prize invitation. They entrusted me with original posters, a true treasure with which I try to bring, in my own way, a modern touch to my creations.
YESTERDAY'S NEWS, TODAY'S MEMORY
Have you always wanted to work on those old magazines from the mid-20th century?
It developed gradually. I started collecting these old magazines during the 80s, simply because I loved their illustrations. At first, I wasn't interested in collage because I thought it was old-fashioned. It was through my interest in artists like Villeglé, Matisse, and Picasso that I was most influenced. All periods interest me, but I have a strong preference for those after the 70s.
One of the specific characteristics of paper is that, as a material, it already has a history.
In 2009, for the "Métro Monde" exhibition at the New Heart City gallery, I collected fragments of advertising posters dating from the 1960s at the Saint-Sulpice metro station, which I used to create the backgrounds for my canvases. These poster excerpts resembled screen printing more than the pointillism found in printmaking today. Through recycling, I breathe new life into all this paper material composed of texts, shapes, and colors.
I then decided to use a Ciné Monde by canvas. The magazine's date served as my title, and on the back of each piece, I noted the names of all the actors and actresses featured in the composition. The historical dimension of this approach interested me: that way, if I were addressing a film buff, they could identify the people depicted. I like using paper in this way, giving it a new dimension that allows me to tell stories with minimal means. I never tire of the collages I create in the street. During my travels, I sometimes rework my old collages, damaged by time or human intervention. I like repetition, and over the years, I've claimed certain spots as my own, in Paris and elsewhere.
Your work thus resonates with the theme of memory.
The most beautiful illustration of this idea was a collage I created near the Centre Pompidou, at the corner of Rue Quincampoix. I've done so many collages there that one of my recurring characters refers to it: "Madame Quincampoix." One day at that intersection, as I was stepping back to take photos of my latest display, I saw an elderly couple deep in conversation about this collage. My composition included a photo of this woman, who, in her younger days, had acted in a film, and who had just found herself there, on the wall in front of the Centre Pompidou. It was a very moving moment.
What is your relationship with the ephemeral nature of urban art?
I can work extensively on a collage in the studio, almost as much as on a canvas, but once I've glued it down, it no longer belongs to me. For nearly 10 years now, every 1er In January, I create a collage with the number of the year. This year I did it at the Centquatre, but twice in a row it was in Belleville. The first one I put up, on a small shack leaning against the carousel at the intersection, stayed for six months. The following year it disappeared, leaving me only long enough to have a coffee. That's part of the game, and if you don't accept these rules, you don't paste things up in the street. In this way, urban space serves as my testing ground: once I've designed a character, I first position it in the street to see how it's perceived, by me and by others. If it works, I then stage it on canvas.
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