Self-Help

The Self-Help series is a writing and drawing project focusing on the world of personal development. I identify in this theme a language and methods that promise solutions for greater well-being while normalising the body and psyche to an entrepreneurial logic of the self. As Eva Illouz explains, personal development tells us that our suffering belongs to us and not to others, and that it is up to us to improve it by working on ourselves.

I invest a series of selected exercises, such as mindfulness meditation and self-suggestion, with my personal experience as an artist, my doubts and frustrations about the development of my artistic career. The texts echo the emptiness of words, but also suggest the ambivalence of this language, which comes alive when we invest it with our desires.

The artworks painted and screen-printed in gouache continue this exploration by reproducing heuristic maps used in personal development. I translate the tree structures into spatial plans, echoing my practice of paper cutting. « Si ces œuvres font référence aux méthodes de développement personnel (discipline approximativement liée aux loisirs créatifs à en croire le voisinage des mandalas à colorier et de la pâte à sel dans les rayons des boutiques spécialisées), elles illustrent aussi certaines préoccupations de l’artiste qui jongle entre l’esthétique froide des formes industrielles, des espaces/objets purement fonctionnels, la perfection du trait vectoriel d’un côté et de l’autre, la fragilité de la gouache. »¹

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