Statement
Baptiste Tavernier is a French artist who has lived more than a decade in Japan, where he studied extensively traditional Japanese arts & crafts and martial arts. His artworks all share the common theme of mazes & labyrinths.
The labyrinth has served throughout centuries as a symbol marking the centre of the world and a metaphor for the city. Roma, Troy, Jerusalem, Arab cities’ souks, Paris and her Catacombs… Tavernier continues this tradition and builds upon it: looking down at the world’s great cities, he finds inspiration in the logic of land and water and the maze-like patterns of human settlement. However, going beyond simple cartography, the lines he draws unfurl into paths and walls that restructure those territories, from which emerges a surreal universe. Although the labyrinth’s myths generally refer to long-lost civilizations, the world he depicts is set in a distant future, a prospective result of the sum of modern societies’ choices. Depraved cities are its central character.
Tavernier’s surreal labyrinthines metropolises address the impact of human decisions on our environment. Social and political erring ways, careless urbanization at the expense of nature, blind consumerism, self-diluting wanderings into virtual spaces… He sometimes embodies our delusions into the duality ruined city / black matter. The black matter feeds on our mistakes and inexorably crawls toward the urban reef, ready to submerge it.
As each work thus glimpses into the future, at the final moments of societies, Tavernier hopes they can foster in the general public’s mind a new consciousness about the environmental catastrophic trajectories that leaders around the world now seems to follow.
Baptiste Tavernier是一位法國藝術家, 他在日本生活了十多年, 在那裡他廣泛地學習日本傳統手工藝和武術。他的作品大多圍繞以迷宮來作為共同主題。在整個世紀裡,迷宮已經成為一種象徵性的表現,它標示著世界的中心以及作為城市的比喻。羅馬,特洛伊,耶路撒冷,阿拉伯城市中的露天市場,巴黎以及她的地下墓穴…Tavernier延續了這種傳統,並建立在此基礎上來創作:俯視世界各大城市, 他從土地和水源的邏輯中,以及人類如同迷宮似的定居模式來尋找靈感。然而,超越簡單的地圖製作,他畫的路徑一路蔓延伸展至小徑與磚牆,重組了那些版圖,從中他創造出了一個超現實的宇宙。雖然迷宮的神話一般是指遙遠失落的文明,但他所描繪的世界是在遙遠的未來,這是現代社會選擇之下總和的預期傑作。墮落的城市是其表現的中心特徵。
Tavernier的超現實迷宮大都會,解決了人類決策對我們環境所造成的影響。此指社會及政治的謬誤, 人們粗心的城市化結果帶來了大自然的犧牲,盲目的消費主義, 自我稀釋地遊走進虛擬的空間…他有時將我們的妄想與二元性崩壞的城市/黑色物質具體化地呈現。黑色物質餵食我們的過錯,並且它無可避免的正爬向城市岸邊的礁石,準備企圖來淹沒它。在他的每個作品中瞥見未來,在這社會上的最終時刻, Tavernier希望他能在廣大的市民心中培養一種新的集體意識, 它正是現在各國領導人似乎都在關注的有關於周遭環境災難性的軌跡。
Artist introduction
Born in 1981 in France, Baptiste Tavernier pursues a creative path that has led him from experimental music through the martial arts of Japan to the painter’s canvas.
Trace Tavernier’s polymath oeuvre and you find: intense concern with pattern and logic, relentless focus on the discipline of craft, and creative inspiration without horizons.
On canvas, these three elements now fuse to reveal a unique and rigorously observed perspective, elegantly rendered with impeccable craft: mathematically precise mazes that decode in abstraction the form of the world’s great cities.
Tavernier studied at Paris University digital arts and musical composition, influenced by composers like Gerard Grisey, Salvatore Sciarrino and Steve Reich.
His path took a dramatic virage in 2006 with the decision to move to Japan and immerse himself in martial arts. Within a decade, he reached high ranks in four disciplines of swordsmanship: naginata (halberd), tankendo (short sword), jukendo (bayonet) and battodo (sword drawing and cutting), and achieved proficiency in the making and repair of kendo armor. He also studied for several years Japanese flower arrangement.
Tavernier sought a fresh creative outlet for craftsmanship that was by then fully mature. So in 2010, brush in hand, he started to experiment and mix his diverse set of skills onto the canvas.
Baptiste Tavernier出生於法國1981年,他從實驗音樂身上一路追隨創造性的道路,這一路從日本武術一直到畫家的畫布。
追溯Tavernier博學多聞的畢生作品,你會發現: 他強烈注重在模式跟邏輯; 他並不注重工藝紀律;他的創造靈感是無邊無界地。在畫布上,這三種元素融合在一起並呈現出一種獨特且嚴格觀察的視野, 他優雅地渲染技術以及無可挑剔的工藝: 以數學精準地描繪,並以抽象的形式解碼世界上各個偉大的城市。Tavernier他曾在巴黎大學學習數位藝術以及音樂創作, 他的風格受到Gerard Grisey, Salvatore Sciarrino以及Steve Reich的影響。他的生涯在2006發生了戲劇性的轉折 – 那時他決定搬到了日本這個城市,並且沉浸在習藝武術之中。十年來,他在四個劍術領域中皆獲得很好的成績: 長刀naginata(戟halberd), 短劍道tankendo (短劍short sword), 銃剣道jukendo (刺刀bayonet), 抜刀術battodo (劍畫和切割sword drawing and cutting), 而且他也學會了劍道裝甲的製作和維修工作。並且在日本的期間他還學習了幾年的花卉藝術。
Tavernier尋求創新的手工藝品,那時候那樣的工藝已經成熟。所以在2010年他提起畫筆開始試驗,並將他之前所習得的各種技藝應用在他的畫布上面。
INSTAGRAM: @baptiste_tavernier
