Béatrice Blanchard Artiste Designer – Béatrice Blanchard Artiste Designer

« Gold » and « contemporary » are two words which at first may seem impossible to match, however they appear to be completely intertwined in Béatrice Blanchard’s work, one feeding the other. Accumulating many symbols over time, gold still remains a safe haven and an object of fantasy which fills bank safes and jewelry boxes alike. These are the repressed desires that Beatrice Blanchard wishes to put to use. Aware of the symbolic significance of the materials she uses, she confronts us with our own inconsistencies, seeking to break the silence through fun and cathartic work. Her dual status as an artist and a craftman designer breathes a fresh look at these iconoclastic issues. She is a Visual Arts University of Bordeaux graduate, and her research mainly focused on video, performance and installation. Wishing to reach full immersion of the viewer, she places the body in the center of the creative process. The artist isolates and disassembles the subject to reach an omniscient point of view, capturing the slightest breath, the slightest gesture. The very support of her work is abused: The image is pixelated, overexposed, contrasted to the extreme. This body kneading undertaking is already revealing the artist's obsessions: to dissect the material in order to understand its essence. Alongside her artistic practice, she is involved in many restoration projects and learns the art of gilding. She quickly finds her place and becomes very sought by individuals who give her free hands to showcase their interiors. She gradually starts to work gold in a more graphic way, and to incorporate her concern for pure line into her projects. The challenge is to give gold a contemporary look again. This thorough research on gilding leads to the invention of a new material: la Galuchette ©, a slight nod to the sharkskin. This involves creating a surface consisting of small irregular droplets, and is particularly relevant when it comes to breaking the monotony of a texture. In continuation with her conceptual works, Beatrice Blanchard’s work includes the obsession with material. The Human is always central and reveals himself as the creator of his own environment. The concepts of game and derision are rampant in these works combining the irony and the sublimation of materials. At a time of hyper productivity and excessive commercialization, Beatrice Blanchard chooses to go for a qualitative craftwork in limited editions. She returns to a more humane and humanistic production pattern by taking the time to design and craft her objects. The choice of refusing standardization and hyper production does not stop there, since she also decides to use environmentally responsible materials (recycled gold, wood from sustainably managed forests). Gold is now rehabilitated and becomes an ethical and visionary matter, free from the use that was made of it by the former powerful of this world. Convinced that luxury can re-educate consciences, she strives to be exemplary in her methods of creation and production.

« Gold » and « contemporary » are two words which at first may seem impossible to match, however they appear to be completely intertwined in Béatrice Blanchard’s work, one feeding the other. Accumulating many symbols over time, gold still remains a safe haven and an object of fantasy which fills bank safes and jewelry boxes alike. These are the repressed desires that Beatrice Blanchard wishes to put to use.Aware of the symbolic significance of the materials she uses, she confronts us with our own inconsistencies, seeking to break the silence through fun and cathartic work. Her dual status as an artist and a craftman designer breathes a fresh look at these iconoclastic issues. She is a Visual Arts University of Bordeaux graduate, and her research mainly focused on video, performance and installation.Wishing to reach full immersion of the viewer, she places the body in the center of the creative process. The artist isolates and disassembles the subject to reach an omniscient point of view, capturing the slightest breath, the slightest gesture. The very support of her work is abused: The image is pixelated, overexposed, contrasted to the extreme. This body kneading undertaking is already revealing the artist’s obsessions: to dissect the material in order to understand its essence. Alongside her artistic practice, she is involved in many restoration projects and learns the art of gilding. She quickly finds her place and becomes very sought by individuals who give her free hands to showcase their interiors. She gradually starts to work gold in a more graphic way, and to incorporate her concern for pure line into her projects. The challenge is to give gold a contemporary look again. This thorough research on gilding leads to the invention of a new material: la Galuchette ©, a slight nod to the sharkskin. This involves creating a surface consisting of small irregular droplets, and is particularly relevant when it comes to breaking the monotony of a texture. In continuation with her conceptual works, Beatrice Blanchard’s work includes the obsession with material. The Human is always central and reveals himself as the creator of his own environment. The concepts of game and derision are rampant in these works combining the irony and the sublimation of materials. At a time of hyper productivity and excessive commercialization, Beatrice Blanchard chooses to go for a qualitative craftwork in limited editions. She returns to a more humane and humanistic production pattern by taking the time to design and craft her objects. The choice of refusing standardization and hyper production does not stop there, since she also decides to use environmentally responsible materials (recycled gold, wood from sustainably managed forests). Gold is now rehabilitated and becomes an ethical and visionary matter, free from the use that was made of it by the former powerful of this world. Convinced that luxury can re-educate consciences, she strives to be exemplary in her methods of creation and production.

She quickly finds her place and becomes very sought by individuals who give her free hands to showcase their interiors. She gradually starts to work gold in a more graphic way, and to incorporate her concern for pure line into her projects. The challenge is to give gold a contemporary look again. This thorough research on gilding leads to the invention of a new material: la Galuchette ©, a slight nod to the sharkskin. This involves creating a surface consisting of small irregular droplets, and is particularly relevant when it comes to breaking the monotony of a texture.
In continuation with her conceptual works, Beatrice Blanchard’s work includes the obsession with material. The Human is always central and reveals himself as the creator of his own environment. The concepts of game and derision are rampant in these works combining the irony and the sublimation of materials. At a time of hyper productivity and excessive commercialization, Beatrice Blanchard chooses to go for a qualitative craftwork in limited editions.
She returns to a more humane and humanistic production pattern by taking the time to design and craft her objects. The choice of refusing standardization and hyper production does not stop there, since she also decides to use environmentally responsible materials (recycled gold, wood from sustainably managed forests). Gold is now rehabilitated and becomes an ethical and visionary matter, free from the use that was made of it by the former powerful of this world. Convinced that luxury can re-educate consciences, she strives to be exemplary in her methods of creation and production.