Lea de CACQUERAY

Hidden among the trees, three enigmatic objects loom on branches, like hibernating bats. The cold, metallic sculptures do not reveal their essence. They appear to pay no heed to the visitor’s presence.

This is new work by Léa de Cacqueray (Aix-en-Provence 1996, lives and works in Paris). De Cacqueray graduated in 2020 from the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. She works mainly with glass, steel, LED, PVC, resin – materials associated with technological innovation. The artist is inspired by the way people view such developments: on the one hand, full of expectation and curiosity and, on the other hand, afraid of the future that they will bring about – a future of which these three sculptures may well be harbingers.

As you come closer, you see that each of these assemblages has a transparent tube at its centre, containing water and oil. These tubes are connected to hand pumps. When you use the pump, the composition of the liquid briefly changes and you can see shifting shapes formed by the oil in the water. About 2000 BC, such images were studied for indications of what the future might bring. This explains the title of the work: De Fatum, ordained by fate. Even today, this ancient form of prediction continues to reverberate within humans, who still like to be in complete control. We often see ourselves as ‘subjects’ who can both manipulate and dominate all the ‘objects’ around us. However, in the spirit of the French scientific and climate philosopher Bruno Latour, the artist now presents us with three futuristic entities that have an unpredictable agency all of their own. And the resulting image is as intriguing as it is disconcerting.

MB text written for the exibition EARTHEATERS lustwarande à Tilburg, Pays-Bas 2023