"As soon as I moved to Mont-près-Chambord in 1976, I began studying celadon, searching through books for information that wasn't there.
Ten years later, in 1986, a weighing error led me down the path of this satiny, translucent, bewitching and mythical material, to which I still devote all my mind and all my time. Although I have now rediscovered the technical principles that govern the formation of this famous ‘greasy sheen’, I keep on trying, always in search of a new perfection in the quality of a satin finish or in the nuance of a tone.
Celadon gives a sensation of softness, an impression of infinite depth. In contrast, this serenity allows me to exalt a certain tension and drama in sculptures with complex, lively and sometimes tormented lines.
The outside of the pieces is sculpted from a block of very soft clay. Barely organised, but dynamic, abundant and nervous forms, drawn in a rapid gesture, then come into being, preserving on their surface the traces of this brutal and passionate genesis.
After drying for a while, the clay hardened and I dug inside. The action lasts for a long time, the earth has become firm, the lines become taut and then rigid, and the surfaces become smoother.Edges and more or less tapering projections then occupy the void, giving it rhythm and organisation. They are the ideas and reflections that I combine with the more sensual forms of the exterior.In the most recent sculptures, the modelling of a fleshy lip contrasts with the tension of a line tapering like a blade, where the material is exhausted before disappearing.
The opposition between the indefinite and the definite appeals to me enormously, and underpins my work.I like this progression from the effect of matter, where each person can inscribe their imagination, to a very defined form that expresses a symbolic aesthetic universe."
Jean-François Fouilhoux