Géraldine Wilcke is a French artist who draws with light. Her Architectures de l'ombre (Shadow Architectures) are the result of her work with light and shadow, combining architecture, design and photography. She plays with our eyes and our perception of reality, creating visual illusions through light installations and sculptures that she then photographs.
She works with several galleries in Paris ( Wagner Gallery ), Strasbourg ( Radial Gallery ) and Brussels ( Klotzshows Gallery ). With these galleries, she has exhibited at the Grand Palais éphémère in Paris, the Espace Commines and the Réfectoire des cordeliers ( Paris ), the Carreau du Temple ( Salon Drawing Now, Paris ), the 1905 Arts Space in Shenyang ( China ) and the G-Lake art gallery in Fuzhou ( China ).
Born in 1980 in Bremen, Géraldine Wilcke lives and works in Strasbourg ( France ). Having completed a master's degree in plastic arts at Marc Bloch University in Strasbourg, she then joined the Haute école des arts du Rhin in Mulhouse, and immersed herself in different universes such as design, painting, installation, engraving, architecture, photography and graphic design. Her multidisciplinary training allows her to move from one field to another according to her projects and her inspiration. This decompartmentalization distinguishes and continually enriches her artistic background and approach. She exhibited at the Musée de l'Impression sur Etoffes [Museum of Printed Textiles] in Mulhouse and then at the Biennale Internationale Design Saint-Etienne [Saint-Etienne International Design Biennial] upon graduation.
She then joined a design studio in Paris, and went on to obtain a Capes d'arts - plastiques before pursuing her artistic creation projects.
"My work can be seen as the record, the trace or the impression of a long and meticulous process involving architecture, light and shadow.
My approach is multidisciplinary, exploring architecture, sculpture, light installation and photography. Entitled "Architectures of Shadow", the works are organized in different series, according to the material and the technique used. The process of creation is defined by several distinct phases: the study of the material in terms of its physical characteristics, its transformation, its installation and its lighting, and then the search for a photographic angle that creates an illusion.
As in a shadow theater, I assemble, sculpt, fold or simply position materials such as paper, metal or Plexiglas. I assign each one a role on the stage and give it a voice through materials, shadows cast and reflections.
Light, natural or artificial, is at the center of my process. The materials – transparent, translucent or opaque – each react in different ways to the light sources to which they are exposed.
These light installations are ephemeral and require multiple studies, handlings and illuminations in order to finally obtain the sought-after composition and to establish the installations long enough for them to be photographed. Each time, the moment is fragile, fleeting, ephemeral, unique. This process requires time and patience and is absolutely fascinating. It is a never-ending work that becomes more and more complex as the months go by. Initially working with small translucent or colored plates, I quickly turned to larger elements that lend themselves more to folding and twisting. I use one or the other depending on the series I wish to develop. Each is in perpetual transformation and grows over the months. New series appear according to my experiments, when a material offers new possibilities.
In looking at the photographs, are we confronted with the work itself, the performance, or are we in the presence of the only trace of an ephemeral plastic creation? However one interprets it, only the camera makes material the immateriality of the work. The entire challenge is to grasp the elusive and to depict a fragment of seconds that took several hours to build. The combination of the light, the viewing angle and the composition makes each work unique, impossible to reproduce identically.
My "architectures of shadow" depict elements that play with the eye of the viewer and his perception of the work. Is it illusion? Reality? The boundary is thin and the viewer quickly swings from one side to the other. The eye tries to hold on to a tangible element before abandoning itself to its path into the heart of the work. It tries to understand how the image was constructed and what it represents. I play at blurring the lines between interior and exterior spaces, open and closed, real and projected. I create, by using light, a new perception of matter and reality. Once the light is turned off, the work disappears.
The ephemeral character of what light reveals to our eyes, the possibilities offered by each material, the questioning of our perception of reality, the material and the immaterial, and illusion are all themes that are omnipresent in my work. It is a process in constant evolution, each experiment opening a new field of investigation."
Website : https://geraldinewilcke.myportfolio.com/work
CV : https://geraldinewilcke.myportfolio.com/cv
Instagram : geraldine_wilcke
