Avec et sans retenue (n°3) 18

In addition to sculpture, the multifaceted work of the French artist Claire-Jeanne Jézéquel
comprises minutely rendered pencil drawings on graph paper, collages and watercolours.
Irrespective of the technique used, the works are united by her interest in organic and geometric
forms, and in particular by their extension over surface or space. Her work “Avec et sans
retenue (nº3)” (With and Without Demarcation) consists of three aluminium sheets laid on the
ground. They are each cut straight on one or two sides and joined at precise angles, while their
other side seems to melt as if made of liquid material. Jézéquel deliberately breaks with current
conventions of plastic sculpture and two-dimensional painting. Her abstract objects made of
thin sheets of different materials call up panel painting rather than three-dimensional work.
Even the parts of the sculpture reminiscent of thin bars seem like the remains of an easel shorn
of its function: the layout on the ground is space-consuming, so that the work must be walked
around and encircled to do justice to its massive extension in space.