Micheau, Clara Lou - Ondes

30cm x 51cm x 25cm. 2" x 20" x 10".

“Ondes” or waves in English, refers to the movement of water when a stone is dropped into it: a circle that repeats itself before fading away.

The artist created it in an effort to capture that fleeting emotion: the feeling of being both ephemeral and intimately connected to the universe. As one fades, the other emerges. Or, to borrow the words of the exhibition: where light fades, shadows lengthen, and where shadows shorten, light rises—all within the same cycle. Clara Lou revisits the myth of Mother Nature by imagining her in a landscape of the deep sea. 

Beyond the sculpture’s dark surrealism, its materiality is expressed through the contrast between glossy and matte surfaces. On the dark stoneware, she applied “fake ash,” “oil spots,” and “variegated” glazes using both a brush and an airbrush. She wanted to create depth within the various shades of brown and black, in order to evoke a dark scene.