— An interstellar trip in the dephts of the Abysses.
InterstellART movement
Here is how everything began, I entered at the age of 19 as an apprentice in the workshop of the Flemish Master José GILI. I learned the oil glaze technique by realizing copies of masterpieces, I very quickly oriented myself toward the movement of the Romantics from the 19th century, the English landscape painters and more specifically the painter Joseph Mallord William Turner.
Whenever my Master observed my work, he had a very peculiar way of teaching me painting: by enigma, he told me "Put some Light" and was gone. I was trying naturally to lighten up my paint pallet. When he was back, he repeated the same thing again… After a while, whitout understanding, I destroyed the painting by covering it with black. Seeing what I had just done, my Master exclaimed "Ha! There you go, when you want, you put some light."
I understood that the black is at the service of the light. The darker is the painting, the lighter it is:
Lionel PERBET
Pêcheurs en mer - Nocturne (Fishermen at sea - Night)
Oil painting on canvas : 65x50 cm. Year : 2003
All my approach about painting is based on the research and the work around the light.
After a few years, I started to thinkg about modernizing my paint, about how to anchor my work around the light of the 19th century Romantics, to bring it into the 21st century.
I started from a simple observation:
My interest in painting is the research of the light. So I naturally turn myself toward the Black to revolutionize my approach toward a new light.
I do not pretend to have any knowledge that the common mortal doesn't know. I invite you to follow the rabbit in its burrow, an initiatory journey into the Darkness…
I launched myself in this adventure with only one poor pigment, a Terre de Cassel. I work with this unique pigment for 2 years and I have never been that inspired since I am alone with this pigment, and furthermore, black.
This black matter is not a ready-to-use product I buy in a pot to apply on my support, it is a formulation I created still with this same unique pigment, a Terre de Cassel.
Personally, I never understood anything to painting. The more I move forward, the less I understand ; Why do I paint for more than twenty years. All I can say about this discipline, it is fascinating, it has the power to move oneself way beyond everything one could have ever think to know... And even beyond death.
I understand better now why, back then, my Master only taught me one thing about painting: PATIENCE. The path that is left needs to be walked alone.
My artistic approach is turned toward the outside world, linked to the space conquest: toward the sky and the future.
And at the same time, turned toward the Earth, our roots, our legacy.
I became an InterstellART miner, leaving Earth, what I always known, what I mastered about painting: figurative, the 600 years old oil painting technique that was passed to me, to venture beyond the visible horizon in a quest for a new light.
InterstellART miner
Beyond matter and time.
It is a survival process, similar to humanity, I began to undertake in 2019.
I always felt like an alien on this planet, searching for my place down there, without much success. So, I have decided to go back home, up there, beyond the visible horizon, in a insterstellar space travel in the depths of the abysses. This is where my real home is located, in a new light.
It is a quest in the darkness, of which the first step is to look into the inside. At the image of the minor, always digging deeper and deeper in the entrails of the earth, searching for gemstones.
My initial will was to modernize my painting. Instead of that, my Manoirs have the aspect of antique walls, coming from I don't know what temple in ancien Egypt.
Facing this surprising observation, I am not fighting it.
Mektoub, my Manoirs will be modern paintings aged more than 4000 years old!
I feel like assembling a puzzle of which I don't know the drawing. In the Ancien Times, one named the Egyptians the Kemet or Kemi, that can be translated by "The Black Land", referring to a strip of land that was made fertile by the black silt left by the annual Nil flood. This black matter I formluated is the fertile silt from which will florish this new light.
I passed behind Alice's mirror, a way leading to other sides of the visible spectrum.
My approach is the result of an experiment mid-way between art and science. Each painting answersthe enigma of the previous one and leaves another one for the coming painting. This is my way of moving always deeper into the abysses.
Lionel PERBET
Photos of the trailer shooting:
Dans les profondeurs des abîmes (In the depth of the abysses.)
This epic gave birth to a serie of painting named Manoirs ©.
Pierre Soulages worked on the surface, when I, am working in the deep in which I dive deeper and deeper in the abysses searching for the antithesis of black: white.
This is a transmutation of the matter into light, an alchemic approach between science and art.
Even in the depths of the darkness, it is possible to find the light.
Sic Luceat Lux (May the light shine)
— Work on the matter mattness.
My travel into the depth of the abysses began with a research in the surface.
This is with a formulation I made, based on this black pigment, that I apply in the form of a paint patina.
Lionel PERBET
(Black stained glass) :
Black matter on wood 73x95cm. - 2019.
I work on the mattness of the matter by playing with matt and shining aspects, working on the ironing of this patina.
Considering the results satisfying, I wanted to go further in order to emphasize this matt/shining contrast. So I added to my formulation other ingredients for the next painting.
— Behind Alice's mirror.
This is by going furhter in the contrast that I realized a dosage error. Without knowing it, under the skin of this new drying monochroma, a transmutation was on-going: from matter into light.
After having created this new painting, not considering it satisfying, I decided to destroy it. Consequently, the result was interesting. Its raw and monolithic aspect inspired me a lot and I kept it this way.
I can't recall why I shone a black light on this painting but this is by this way I discovered this singularity hidden behind the visible horizon. This singularity I called the Nacre du Noir (black mother-of-pearl).
One must always keep its childlike soul, even more in a creative process. That is what guided my intuition.
At the beginning of this epic, I had really not a single idea of what I will be discovering. However, I already had in mind to realize black monoliths exposed on black walls, enlighted by black lights. Without this intuition, I could have walked away from this discovery that moved the rest of my history with black.
There is no UV pigment, even less is it a photo editing.
Lionel PERBET
(Black Diamond):
Black matter on wood 38x46cm. - 2019.
I can say it now: I had to destroy my art to find the light I was desperately searching in the darkness. This is at at the edge of the abysses that I discovered a new side of this same light I studied back when I was an apprentice in my Flemish Master workshop.
My will was to bring back this light inherited from romantic painters from the 19th century in order to bring it into the 21st century.
It is probably very presomptuous from me but I am proud to realize this tour de force, I can now present to you under my Manoirs© serie.
After a dosage error I made back then in my Devil's kitchen, I discovered a door, a way, I walked on. I decided to follow the rabbit in the burrow, this is how I got behind Alice's mirror and discovered another dimension in the Black.
— My Manoirs are secret doors.
The formulation of this chemical reaction is one gram close: 1 gram more or 1 gram less and the painting remains walled in the darkness.
The challenge is now to tame this wild horse (this dosage error) by realizing a figurative painting composed with this chemical reaction.
The first being I met on the other side of the visible spectrum is this Vierge Noire (Black Virgo), entirely dressed with a flower petals armor, flower petals that spurt from her eyes.
This is an overprinting of Black that I was able to reveal in a ghostly way this face under the black light spectrum.
Technically, this Vierge Noire (Black Virgo) does not exist because there is only one pigment : BLACK.
Lionel PERBET
(Black Virgo):
Black Matter on wood 38x46cm. - 2019.
My Manoirs are doors opening on secret rooms inside this MANOIRS.
— The Manoirs architect.
I knew nothing about lighting and I found myself, despite myself, creating this unique device for my Manoirs with the help of an engineer.
The discovery of this chemical reaction lead to a whole reflection on an attempt to show what is invisible on these paintings.
I had to start with searching for a light source with a really precise frequency. Naturally, this type of lighting for a painting does not exist on the market, not even the lightbulbs compatible with a picture lamp.
To create this specific lighting for my Manoirs, I started from a blank page: I began to inspire myself with universes that had nothing to do with my painting, I went to arcade rooms to see for myself the complex lighting devices for games.
I keep in mind my goal to bring back the technical legacy from the Flemish School to the modern world. One foot in the tradition, the other in the future.
To implement this scenography, I started to do everything by myself.
I spent more time sawing, gluing, electrically cabling than painting.
Too many failures, misunderstandings, beggings to ask for help from electricians and other specialists from many other fields. I didn't knew who I was anymore.
The first tests were encouraging but too complex for me to duplicate them. I had to go on with my researches…
The first scenographies for my Manoirs, the STS InterstellART, custom made by me, were too far away from the quality I wished for them to be exposed to a great contemporary art fair.
Lionel PERBET
STS InterstellART:
Black Matter on wood 38x46cm. - 2019.
My approach is experimental. As a Spoutnik launched in the unfathomable depths of the Black matter, I lead myself on a new path to the pictural spatial conquest.
The lighting topic respresents the keystone to the edifice of the Manoirs. It is been since 2019 and the lighting topic is still under research and development.
An Arduino engineer joined me in this adventure. He brought his talent at the service of my Manoirs scenography. His work allowed to realize prototypes unique picture lamps in the world. This synergy started a new reflection and opened the field of possibilities.
SkyNet
PCB Manoirs.
A marriage between interactive electronic programming and painting, the term "avant-gardist" approach takes all its meaning here.
UA self-support on the frame version, wireless, containing a detection moving cell is in the process of being created. The Manoirs, as haunted picture will animate itself in the presence of its observer.
We often talk about the Alchemist but he is not the only one to work on the depths of the darkness. There is also the Architect, the spatio-Engineer of the MANOIRS; Without him, the light would not be possible on the other side of the visible horizon.
— The alchemist.
Back when I was working on my strange paintings, I painted with a device strapped to my head by a string in the semi-darkness. It allowed me to see what was not in order to create the composition.
The idea of perfecting this headlamp to paint made me want to go further by realizing an aluminium structure, lighter, with a remote power supply.
This headlamp has a minimalist and agressive design, allowing to break through the visible border materialized by the Black in order to go behind the mirror of the visible spectrum and get access to another dimension.
The obtained result was a success, even more on the aesthetic plan. I thought it was a shame this device was only used for painting. I thought to myself it could also feed the imaginary around this mysterious approach.
JMW Turner - MANOIRS
This headlamp with its agressive lines gave birth to an enigmatic character link to my artistic approach: an InterstellART Miner, an Alchemist, an Orpheus myth personnified, diving into the darkness, down to Hell.
Photos of the trailer shooting:
In the depths of the abysses.
I find while searching. Every discovery expands the field of possibles around what was a dosage error at first, giving birth to a new idea:
The possibility to find light even in the depth of darkness.
At the beginning, I only wanted to realise some tests in "outre-noir" ("Beyond black"1) but this rapidly grows in proportion even so that as of today, I have many difficulties managing everything while working on the side full-time.
— Production of prints.
Manoirs silkscreen prints
A technical achievement in collaboration with a Swiss-German workshop. One serie of the Vierge-Noire (Black-Virgo) in 50 numbered and signed copies, format 38x46cm on Gmund 300 g/m² paper is available for sale.
Photo styling:
Darkness trying to take over the Manoirs.
These limited editions aim to make the acquisition of my Manoirs© accessible. More than simple reproductions, a technical achievement unique in the world.
This is the transmutation of matter into light, an alchemic approach between science and art.
These are more than painting, these are Manoirs, an artistic approach with a strong message, especially in the current context:
Even in the depths of the darkness, it is possible to find the light.
Hanged up to my apartment walls, my Manoirs are witnesses of it.
Sic Luceat Lux (May the light shine)