CHRISTIAN JACCARD

Fire–source of life and light–and interlacing -principle of creation and relationship in the kingdom of life–are the two basic “tools” of Christian Jaccard’s artistic practice for whose stake is the representation of time. Initiated in the 1970s with burning objects on canvas, leather and anonymous canvases, the igneous way associates to the act of painting the ancestral practice of slash and burn, also called ‘culture sur brûlis’. Slow wick burning alters the original material and color of the materials and various props, from which emerges a network of new imprints. These “automatic” drawings are like stigmata of time, composing for the artist a trace of memory, a meaningful mark. Applied to the wall or a building, the “ephemeral paintings” celebrate the cosmic energy. Simultaneously, Christian Jaccard ligatures objects and compulsively knots elements : gnarled textures of domestic, organic or abstract form occupy the walls, floors and ceilings in dynamic and baroque installations, and invent the Supranodal Concept. Calcination, scarification and tattooing by fireproof, knotting and intertlacing of objects, are all dual and complementary gestures that depict the process of creating and symbolize the flow of elapsed time.