UNKnowN x Creative Journeys - Cedric Laquieze

Polina Nosova: Do you choose your materials before you start a project, or do you pick them as you go along?   

_{Cedric Laquieze: As a Dutch guy, I am kind of a hoarder when it comes to materials, so I always keep an eye out for shiny things or organic looking shapes; anything that I think can look architecturally interesting. Ever since I was a kid, I always had boxes and boxes full of stuff. Sometimes, the materials will lead to an idea, and sometimes the idea will lead to a hunt for materials. For the “Fairies” series, for example, I’ll work with what I have.If I see an item with a specific color, I’ll try to make some color matches, and then create an architecture based on that. Or, with the piece currently atUNKnowN Gallery (“The Sinner”), I started with the idea and then hunted for the materials.}

_{But when I first started with the “Fairies”, I had a completely different idea in mind. I was going to make things very, very big with a lot of architecture on everything. And when I had a bunch of the materials, I realized it didn’t work because of the size of everything. It made it look very sketchy and it took away from the beauty of the materials itself.It looked too detailed, and it wasn’t very pretty. So, I scaled it down and started creating these small fairy architectures, and that’s how the series was born. There is something about the architecture of nature-made things that you can only find in these natural elements. You can try to replicate it, but it’s never going to be exactly the same. The stuff that nature makes has a sort of signature on it in its architecture, colors, textures, and everything else. Most artists, architectures, or fashion designers, take inspiration from the basic architecture of nature as well.}

‍

PN: How did you pick your materials as a child?

_{CL: Just a bit of everything. I had a lot of toys when Iwas a kid, when we lived in Los Angeles, and I loved my toys. To this day, Is till have boxes of them. I still go to toy stores to relax. There is something about the shine and the colors and the plastic that I really like. And I always modified stuff too. When I was a kid, I would take things apart and reassemble them into a way in which I wanted them to be. So, that really kickstarted the techniques that I still use now as an adult to make stuff.}  

PN: What do you think that nature and the mythical have in common?

_{CL: I’ve always been into fairytales and legends and myths and the fantasy world that comes with either religion or mythology since I wasa kid. It’s this whole aspect of escapism and creating entire worlds inside your head.}

PN: What else inspires you, besides nature?

_{CL: It can really be anything. I think the main focus of what I like is things from nature. For instance, plants, insects, macro worlds, or underwater creatures. Those subjects are really my number one focus. I’ve never really been an artist who cared about making a commentary on society or religion, or anything like that. I don’t think I could do it if I tried. But besides nature, I’m very inspired by jewelry, fashion, architecture—objects, really.}

PN: Do you have a favorite style of architecture?

_{CL: I grew up in Paris and in Paris, all of the buildings,I mean, most of the buildings are beautiful. You’ll see a balcony in the middle of nowhere with two marble sculptures of people holding it up. I love that old style. I also love churches. I love the Art Deco and Art Nouveau movement.There’s also some stuff in modern architecture that I think is interesting as well. But it’s mostly classic designs that really catch my eye.}

PN: How do you get inspired by nature? Do you go and look at the insects and plants yourself, or is it more of a research process through documentaries? A bit of both?

_{CL: I don’t really watch documentaries that much. People send me a lot of documentaries at the moment because people like to share things on Instagram, and they know what I like, so they share a lot of little videos online with me. But mostly it’s the stuff I stumble upon. There are a couple of shops that I like to go to, and every once in a while, I’ll see something and go like, Ooh, what’s that? And then my mind automatically races to new ideas. A lot of other ideas come to me when I make a mistake. Making mistakes is my number one fuel to come up with new ideas. Every single time I’d try a technique for the first time, I fuck it up. But then I realize, this could work for something else. And before you know, I’m making chandeliers, which is what I’m doing right now.} ‍

‍

PN: Are the chandeliers by request or you’re just making them?

_{CL: Yeah, I’m just making them. For one of the pieces I’m working on, I decided to try a technique called electroplating-- that’s when you turn things into metal. From that, I found a jewelry designer who used that technique to mutate metal. So, I wanted to make these flowers out of metal with jewels on top. When that didn’t work, I thought to do the same on a bigger scale as chandeliers. So, that’s what I’m working on at the moment.}

PN: Your work is very detailed and focused on small things.What appeals to you about these miniature details? _‍

_{CL: There’s a lot of stuff that’s overlooked about the micro world. My fascination for insects also has something to do with the fact that they’re so overlooked. We are a species that like grandiose things, but everything huge is nothing more than a composition of small things. It’s the small details that make something really gorgeous in terms of the way it is built. I wish I could also work at that scale too, to a point. But my mind is always focused on the small things, for instance. And maybe that comes from when I was a kid and I was playing with those toys all the time. I would always create worlds that could fit in my hand, and then maybe that’s something I still do as an adult.}

‍

PN: How do you see your work transforming over time?

_{CL: I'm lucky enough that I am surrounded by really good artists at the place where I work. Some of them are new, and some of them are really well established, and they're also really nice people! I have time to converse with them and talk about how they come up with stuff. And they're always big kids, just the way I am as well. They get really excited talking about their work, and so it kind of translates that excitement with one another as well. And then before you know it, you come up with new ideas. So it's kind of like an unofficial collaboration. Sometimes you influence each other without collaborating, but you still give each other access to birth new ideas.}

‍

PN: This sounds exciting but also overwhelming. How do you decompress from that? sounds like it's really exciting, but also how do you kind of decompress from that?

‍_{CL: Well, it's weird because it can be super stressful, but it's also very relaxing at the same time too. Making stuff is super therapeutic, but thinking about what you're doing is very stressful. And once it becomes your job, a big aspect of it becomes work. This means it's showing your stuff online and promoting your own work as a product, which is really weird to do. I wish you didn't have to, but you kind of do. So, the stressful part is everything that goes around creating, and the relaxing part is the creating itself. So, the physical, the making stuff, sitting down and making something, I sometimes forget to breathe and get headaches. I was like, I'm so focused on it and it's so relaxing. But then whenI get home, which is supposed to be relaxing time, that's when I start overthinking the concept, the work, the promotion.}

PN: How do you hope that people interact with your work when they see it? What do you hope they get out of it?_‍

_{CL: I hope that they get the same feeling that I get whenI see inspirational work. Sometimes when you go into a museum or an exhibition and you see an artwork, and then all of a sudden you have one moment where you see one specific thing and it just stops you in your track and you can just look at it for a long time.}

‍

PN: What do you believe that art is able to teach people that nothing else can?_‍

_{CL: I think the most important thing that art does, is value imagination. Because when you're a kid, for instance, they say you live in a fantasy world, or you're imagining things, it is always said with a sort of negativity. And I think art is really the sum of showing that imagination is what creates. Everything that exists was in someone's imagination first. And I think imagination and escapism and the worlds that people create inside of their minds are something that's very, very specific to us as a species, and it is the most beautiful thing that we create these entire reinterpretations of the world. So, I think the most important thing that art has to teach is the importance of imagination and the worlds that we can create in our minds.}

‍