Last Civilization - Gérard Clisson

“Destruction, Flowability and Random, accumulate and create a real dynamic. Graphic symbols just like alchemy, and it shows the beauty of balance of the art piece during the whole process of creation. ” – Gérard Clisson 

“Imprint, Marking, Existence” are the three key words to understand his work. 

His art piece is very unique: he uses materials similar as bark, layer upon layer, texture is displayed by cracks and repeated arrangement that you can see the elegance, order, sense of design with the distinctive lines and interlacing feeling. 

“Last Civilization” shows various of human's civilization by the layers and interlacing. When you find the rules and balance from all these cracks, it just like you spend all your lifetime without knowing it.  

Painted or natural, and with indeterminate widths, these industrial materials, manufactured to precise standards, are destroyed and ripped up for his creations. Pieces of wood with random shapes are glued onto a square format, providing elements beyond his control. Once the first phase of work is completed, a second ensues which is more structured, with more thought. Assembled, these modules form parallel paths, but with uncertain horizons aligned rhythmically. The result looks like scales or bark suspended in a void. Colours and accumulations create a real dynamic.

There is a Zen feeling to his work, sometimes like furrows raked in gravel in a Japanese garden. Born in 1942 in Saint-Maixent-School (France), Gérard was model maker and scene painter for the theatre. He has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions. Salvage materials have an important place in his work, used to make tables, lamps and sculptures. It was for this reason that he was given a commission in 1996 from the City of Roanne (France) entitled "Star War in Roanne" made mainly from salvaged agricultural machinery.