La Mécanique des fluides (Fluid Mechanics)
2014
Gold leaf on resin
39,8 x 24,8 inches (101 cm x 63 cm)

The Fluid Mechanics result from the covering with gold leaf of a skin obtained by the negative molding of a chiseled relief generated by the withdrawal of the tide on a beach. The work was made after returning from a stay in Thailand, inspired by the use of gold in Buddhist statuary, which, hammered into leaves until its virtual disappearance, is applied in ornament and allows a spiritual connection to the sacred. The fragment, meanwhile, refers to the landscape and its elements, its flicker to that of the sun at the end of the day, which comes to reveal the beauty of the reliefs in an ultimate luster before fading.

"La Mécanique des fluides (fluid mechanics) applies a work of craftsman to a natural motif, half-organic, half-mineral.
Crystallization of the backwash, the work in resin freezes the dynamics of the marine component, creating a strong contrast between the organic movement it captures and substance that resists the flow of which it slows.
Covered in gold leaf, the piece makes sacred this redundant movement, the naturalistic reading leaves a way for interpretation, more dreamlike, an archeology of the sacred."
( Florian Gaité)