M HKA Ensembles

Installation, 200 x 60 x 300 cm.

Collection: Collectie S.M.A.K., Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Gent.

Typical for the work of Jean-Pierre Raynaud are his compositions, created from everyday objects like flowerpots, flags, tiles, rattles, etc. Also his expressive use of the colours red, white and black are characteristic of his work. Raynaud’s earliest works date back to the sixties. With the use of everyday objects, Raynaud does not want to showcase the superficial nature of our existence, but the spiritual nature. His works show similarities to that of Yves Klein, in whose memory he will create a piece of art later on (Hommage à Yves Klein, 1984). His works are also similar to that of the American artist Donald Judd, in the sense that they are both searching for clarity in shape and intensity of spatial perception.

Raynaud refers to his earlier works as ‘Psycho-Objets’. With this wording he gives his “wall sculptures” an emotional context. Psycho-Objet Tour de Babel has an esoteric symbolism to it with no one singular or correct explanation. In this piece, Raynaud confronts the child (the chair) with a picture of an elderly person. He also confronts life (the flowerpot) with the dead material is filled with (cement). Themes like life and death, danger and security, openness and closeness are treated with wit.