SCULPTOR ARTIST
The work of François-Xavier Laloi finds its driving force in environmental injustice by pointing the finger at human consumerism and its harmful rejection on the planet.
It is with a touch of claim that he seeks to put artificial elements in their rightful place by repackaging them in the field of art.
François-Xavier's work is part of a process of upcycling; why continue to produce new elements when we can reshape the old ones according to these needs?
François-Xavier is positioned against the phenomenon of overproduction by using poor materials resulting from human overconsumption, such as pallets, plastic sheeting, ropes and marine pieces. The artist then acts as a mediator by intervening on these elements.
At first, the artist's activity is a stroll in the environment that surrounds him in order to glean and recover his poor materials. Then, he sublimates them, giving them a new life, until they reach synchronic compositions in the redefinition of these objects.
His previous series Before I was a tree (2018) evoked an attempt to return to a semblance of naturalness while retaining the soul of the material. The Sutures (2019), for their part, denounce the desire to repair the material, damaged voluntarily by a third person, by providing care in the manner of a surgeon.
If these works sound the alarm bell on this behavioral gravity, the artist also seeks to "pass the pill" with a touch of humor and derision in his titles, ( Before I was a christmas tree 2018, A la mussel fishing, I don't want to go there mom 2020, Seascape (de) 2021) instead inviting the viewer to take a new look at the elements he assembles.
Arriving in Puglia, it was with amazement that François-Xavier Laloi noticed a decline in civility towards the Mediterranean. Faced with this observation, he continues his process of recovering-recycling-sublimating, with particular attention to the relationship he has with the sea. It is by helping him, on his own scale, that a flirtation takes place. is established with what it spits out; simple waste which in his eyes has an inestimable plastic value. It is like falling in love in front of this disgusting maritime that he chooses to sublimate by incorporating them into his works. Thus, it establishes a close link between the land and maritime border by exploring new questions.
The artist
Biography
Born in 1993, the French artist, François-Xavier Laloi is known for his sculptures of assemblages of materials from human consumption.
During his wanderings in urban and natural environments, he notices an abandonment with regard to certain artificial objects which have reached the end of their life and use.
As he began to harvest, a flirtation was established between the artist and these artefacts. He fell in love in front of them and seeks to reveal the beauty that he feels towards them by attributing to them a preciousness.
François-Xavier's work is part of a process of upcycling in order to sanctify these rejections of humanity.
He sounds the alarm on gravity and seeks to pass the pill with derision and poetry in his works.
In 2020, François-Xavier Laloi moved to Puglia, in southern Italy, where he continues his work, this time with a particular interest in the sea and the rubbish it spits out. This maritime disgust, imprinted with human repressions, has, in the eyes of the artist, a singular value with which he likes to have fun to compose his astonishing assemblages.