Eric Le Maire

(Mixed media)


Culture Minérale, 1993
Dimensions variables
Ciment, résine, crin, eau salée.

Born in Levallois in 1964, Eric Le Maire lives and works in Paris. He studied first at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Grenoble, before winning a scholarship to the Institut des Hautes Etudes en Art Plastique, Paris.

In his sculpture he gives priority less to the form of an object than to the process of formation of objects when subjected to a variety of phenomena, taken from a common repetory of domestic experiences and from physics, such as the formation of steam and ice, the disolving of matter by acid, electric contacts, the formation of limescale or salt deposits, electronic captors, etc.

Eric Le Maire's works are based on the intimate and physical relationship which is formed between the viewer and a work of art. They require a lasting, committed presence on the part of the owner, who is often invited to take an active and tactile role, and thus to interact with the work on a daily basis.


MINERAL CULTURES
1993


Like many of Eric Le Maire's works, Mineral Cultures require the active participation of its audience to set it into motion. These sculptures, of various forms, serve to form crystals when salt water is poured into the upper receptacles. The salt water then seeps through to the sculpture's exterior via capillaries. Little by little, the crystals overtake the supporting structure and metamorphose the original geometry into a completely new form of raw mineral, within which contains thousands of sub-levels of crystal geometry. The metamorphosis can be stopped at any point by rinsing the sculpture in fresh water, and likewise, reinitiated by the reintroduction of salt water. The evolution of the Mineral Culture is therefore in the hands of its audience.

Various dimensions.
Cement, resin, horsehair, salt water.