The multidisciplinary practice of French artist Camille Henrot examines the changing interpersonal connections and conversations that stem from the saturation of information in the contemporary age.
Read MoreHenrot attended the École nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, where she studied film animation.
Weaving together personal stories, social media, psychoanalysis, and anthropology, Henrot's work delves into the evolving modes of interpersonal connections and conversations in today's society, while examining how beliefs and new media are becoming vehicles of structural anxiety. Resisting categorisation, Camille Henrot's practice spans film, painting, drawing, sculpture, and installation, using organic and everyday objects.
Henrot rose to prominence with her video Grosse Fatigue, which was the product of a 2013 fellowship at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Presented at the 55th Venice Biennale in 2013, the work received the prestigious Silver Lion, and is widely regarded as one of the most influential examples of film in art in the 21st century.
Playing on themes of insanity, madness, and information overload, the 13-minute video features overlays of computer pop-ups in a restless accumulation of objects and specimens.
Speaking about the concept behind Grosse Fatigue, Henrot explained to Ocula Magazine: 'The more information you have access to, the more unhappy you're likely to be, and Grosse Fatigue—consider even just the title—is connected to this'.
Henrot later expanded on the ideas presented in Grosse Fatigue, bringing together an eclectic mix of objects, images, and sculptures in her acclaimed solo exhibition, The Pale Fox at London's Chisenhale Gallery in 2014.
Henrot's series of sculptures and drawings, titled 'System of Attachment' (2019) was informed by intensive research, focusing on interpersonal relationships and the importance of attachment in human development. Following the announcement of Henrot's representation in 2021, Hauser & Wirth Southampton presented works by the artist in July 2022. Featuring major bronze sculptures, the outdoor installation was complemented by a selection of paintings from Henrot's ongoing series 'Butter and Bread', 'Is Today Tomorrow', and 'Systems of Attachment'.
In 2014, Henrot was the recipient of the Nam June Paik Award. She received the Edvard Munch Art Award in 2015.
Henrot has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions internationally.
Select solo exhibitions include Wet Job (2022), Middelheim Museum, Antwerp; Is Today Tomorrow, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (2021); Mother Tongue, Kestner Gesellschaft, Hanover (2021); Saturday, Tuesday, Art Sonje Center, Seoul (2020); stepping on a Serpent, Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery, Tokyo (2019); Born, Never Asked, Metro Pictures, New York (2018); Silver Series 02: Camille Henrot, Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo (2018); Days are Dogs, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2017); Testa di Legno, kamel mennour, Paris (2017).
Select group exhibitions include Romancing the Surface, GRIMM, Amsterdam (2021); BIM'2021 – Biennale de l'Image en Mouvement, Centre d'art Contemporain Genève, Geneva (2021); The Narrow Gate of the Here-and-Now, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (2021); It's Urgent!, LUMA Foundation, Arles (2020); Artists for New York, Hauser & Wirth, New York (2020); Alienations or The Fire Next Time, Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw (2019); Life to come, Metro Pictures, New York (2019).
Henrot's works have been collected by prominent museums and public institutions worldwide, including Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Fondation Hippocrène, Paris; Pinault Foundation, Venice; Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo; and Centre Pompidou, Paris, among others.
Camille Henrot's Instagram can be found here.
Annabel Downes | Ocula | 2021
