Working with ancient, materials and coaxing them to behave in new ways has been my life's work — and joy.
As founder and artistic director of Callidus Guild, Yolande Batteau spends every day translating the knowledge and skills she's accumulated over a lifetime working as an artist into creating highly sought-after hand-made wallcoverings. Regular commissions from the likes of Louis Vuitton, Tiffany & Co. and Chanel certainly suggest that she has carved out a niche for herself at the very highest echelons of applied art. Working at this level is its own source of joy. As is the
daily work of toiling with a skill and close-knit team of artists to turn studio experiments into repeatable production processes. But Batteau's encyclopedic understanding of and deep affinity for materials, and her seemingly endless curiosity, often lead her down paths that don't arrive neatly at the doorsteps of new wallcovering products. She's ok with that.
Batteau has found peace with the porous nature of a practice that straddles fine art and design and doesn't fret too much about the line that separates product from artwork. In a world that has slowly come around to the polymath approaches of creatives like Virgil Abloh, Pharrell and even contemporary gallery artists like Sterling Ruby or Andrea Zittel, this seems at last, like an acceptable path for artists like Batteau who defy easy categorization.
In some ways Batteau's studio might be better understood as a laboratory. Evidence of her love affair with materiality is everywhere — from an exquisite collection of charred, 'shou sugi ban' and 24 karat gold jewelry pieces created for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, to a prototype chair covered in pure cobalt pigment; from the shelves of handmade metallic paints to the ubiquitous precious metal gilding that is a striking feature of so much of her work; from stones and plasters of every description and hue, to experimental castings of various metals — there is a palpable sense that this is a place of alchemy.
I think juxtaposition is an incredibly powerful tool for an artist. Unlikely combinations are an endless source of inspiration for me.
I'm irresistibly drawn to the materiality of objects – how they feel to the touch, how they behave in the light, even their scent.
One such motif is the mirror. Hers take on myriad forms; the slab of selenite, gilded with precious metal and hung from a hand-forged chain; the 24 karat water-gilded jewel set in a charred wooden base; the soft, volcanic forms of a piece that appears to have been framed in molten lava and dipped in gold; the silver glass plane, studded with geometric crystals and held in place by bronze clasps.
There are themes and motifs that Batteau returns to like a mathematician trying to solve a thorny problem by approaching it again and again, each time from a different angle.
Of all Batteau's works perhaps it is the mirrors that speak most clearly to both our contemporary moment and to notions of ancient craft and elemental form. Each in its own way is equal parts modernist gesture and prehistoric talisman.
Another theme Batteau returns to again and again, is the paravent. An age old form that has been in use since at least 400BC, the paravent was originally conceived to block chilly drafts, and later employed as an elegant decorative statement. Batteau honors the notion of the paravent as a simple and beautiful sculptural form, often treating its surface in her signature wallcovering finishes and designs.
At other times she treats the cencertina folds as though they were a single abstract painting, employing sweeping gestures or geometric forms expressed in precious metal, gilded gesso, mother of pearl and marble dust plaster. Always the outcome is a sumptuous interplay of color, texture and materiality that carries forward notions of luxury and elegance.
The studio is the soul of my practice. It's a place where each movement, each discovery leads inevitably to the next. Like a river that is constant, yet from one moment to the next, changing.
and private commissions provide continued opportunity to mine the possibilities inherent in painting and in the ancient materials she so dearly loves, diving ever deeper into research, exploration and experimentation, much as she has done for the last 30 years.
Though her practice remains firmly rooted in the discipline of painting, Batteau continues to follow inspiration where it leads. She is as excited as ever about the journey, with plans afoot to develop a collection of furniture pieces and another of high-end rugs. Meanwhile the demands of gallery exhibitions
STUDIO
100 N 1st St,
Brooklyn, NY 11249
Tel: 718 783 0329
www.callidusguild.com
ymb@callidusguild.com
