We live in a time where we are fixated with labels. To begin to understand something we want to put it into a category. I asked Anouk Mercier what she would say her job title was and she told me she was a full time Fine Artist, but all these labels are quite ambiguous really. Her creative process uses airbrushing, drawing and a type of solvent ink transfer.
For Anouk, she has always been drawing. Having studied both in France and England she now brings together the elements she’s covered over the years that include landscapes, botany, the figure and animals. Anouk is working towards a solo show for Antler’s Gallery so all these elements are being combined to create a greater narrative that will allow the viewer to immerse themselves in the fanciful world that Anouk is busily creating for them.
The idea is that the audience will see all these individual elements and construct a story in their minds of their own creation. Seeing how the individual parts are linked and how it relates to them.
Hoarding images has always been a part of Anouk, taking special interest in Victorian photographs, postcards, dramatic landscapes and etchings. These have informed her work and gradually they’ve all slotted together to create her visual imagery.
“What appeals to me is something that’s visually really beautiful but that’s quite uncanny, uncomfortable and melancholy as well.” You’re being attracted to something that is beautiful, but it’s not a comfortable beauty, it challenges you. When looking at Anouks work you can see the extreme detail that draws you in to these marvellous and engaging landscapes but the more you look the more unusual its form becomes.
The sky often initially attracts your attention as the clouds take on this bulbous form. This was a natural progression from over-drawing the sky. The reasons Anouk focuses on the skies whilst the landscapes look ‘normal’ is to bring your attention to the fact that these aren’t realistic drawings, it brings in that uncanny element and dream like quality when you see things like two suns sitting in an imploding sky.
When we dream we are so submerged in what’s happening in our unconscious mind that things seem completely normal but within the dream there are things that are completely impossible, but as you’re dreaming they feel natural. That’s what Anouk is trying to convey. Even at a technical level Anouk is bending the rules with construction based on how she sees it in her mind, playing with the effects. As a whole every element may seem complete but perspective and the idea of light may be construed in an abstract way. But when engaging with Anouk’s work it’s a wonder as to whether you’ll notice or take it as being accurately transcribed.
Anouk’s great grandmother lived until she was 100 and would always tell Anouk stories of her life, and when she died she gave Anouk all the photos of the family. It is these stories that have really influenced her and her creative process. Hearing wondrous tales of war and love and looking to pictures letting her imagination wonder is really what grips Anouk as she hopes to achieve this same path of letting the mind wonder within her creations.
Born in Paris, Anouk soon knew that she wanted to study in the art school there. She moved to Switzerland where she grew up with the Alps on her doorstep, slowly etching their dramatic magnitude into her mind from a young age. Eventually she moved to England but made her way back and forth between England and Paris. In Paris her education was very traditional in contrast to her studies in England that were quite contemporary.
At university Anouk had the opportunity to make a lot of big work but couldn’t manage things on such a grand scale after graduating due to not being able to find the time. Now she’s working full time again on her artwork, she’s playing with scale again leading towards her exhibition with Antler’s gallery that we can expect some time towards late Spring 2012.
Anouk really embraces drawing as an art form, beyond just being illustration. Some people think drawing is just something you do before you more on to painting and yes, in some cases this is true, but drawing in itself is a creative skill and practice. Anouk seeks to push this in Bristol and works really hard to promote drawing as an art form in Bristol by running Bristol drawing club.
www.anoukmercier.com
www.antlersgallery.com