Annette Messenger

Biography

Messenger stops his studies with the decorative Arts of Paris the day before May 68, and earns his living by selling menus objects of his clothes industry. It is at that time that it joins together its first Collections , albums of photographs and sentences extracted the press which it annotates and modifies. The Germain gallery orders to him in 1971 - 1972 a work with wool: Messenger creates the Boarders , alignment of sparrows empaillés and emmaillotés in knittings. It breaks then with the sale of objects made to start a continuous creation, which it exposes to Munich in 1973 then with the ARC in 1974. This same year she is noticed for her Collection of proverbs , anthology of generally accepted ideas on the woman whom she embroiders on white cotton squares. Its work is structured gradually and is exposed to the international scales.

She saw and works in 2007 with Malakoff in the Hauts-de-Seine.

Work

The creative process

Work of Annette Messager is structured by various projects with ironic names, conceived like as many facets of the plastician, and which are added the ones to the others without it being obvious to dissociate them:

the cycle “Annette Messager artist” begins with work on the Pensionnaires in 1971-1972: it gathers the exposure of the birds empaillés as well as albums of sketches the representative in a puerile and ambiguous play which holds of childhood and the madness.

the cycle “Annette Messenger collector”, developed simultaneously, is composed of a gathering whole of 56 albums of the varied collections: advertisements matrimonial ( the Marriage of Miss Annette Messager ), newspaper cuttings ( Men that I aime/j' do not like ), photographs ( children with the striped eyes , My jealousies …), images of magazines ( Voluntary tortures ), sayings ( My collection of proverbs ), signatures, tests of Rorschach ( Small daily magic practice ), qualifying adjective…

the cycle “Annette Messager woman practical” in 1974 is composed of series of boards describing in detail the procedure of ordinary manual duties ( My needlework , When I do work like the men )

the cycle “Annette Messager truqueuse” in 1975 falls under a context of Corporal art: the body of the artist becomes the support of a work of Trucage which one does not know if it is of make-up or photo final improvement (series the woman and… )

the cycle “Annette Messager colporteuse” in 1982 includes/understands the series of the Chimères and that of the Effigies , it is resolutely turned towards the Fantastique.

Influences and questioning

Influenced by the Surrealism of André Breton and by the Feminism in the context of the Years 1970, its work fits in the current known as of the " individual Mythologies " , which marks an renewed interest for the Autobiographie and the Narration. It in parallel explores the ambivalence of childhood, the magic report/ratio in the world, the phantasm and the fantastic one ( Pièges with dreams , 1984) while preserving a proximity with the popular Art.

By the use of modest practices close to the rough Art, arts first (the talisman object), Craft industry, even of the Art of living (daily tasks) or productions of childhood (recurring practice of the Play), Messager seeks to know as from which moment a creation belongs to the field of the Art.

Materials

Work in general is characterized by the use of materials which belong to the Poor art: cuddly toys, pieces of fabrics, colored pencils, thwarts, etc Of the modest and familiar objects with which the artist makes structures concerned with the Talisman, of the Relique or the popular Ex-voto, from a point of view which wants to be at the same time protective and worrying.

Since 1988, it uses cuddly toys, empaillés animals, pieces of fabrics and in fact of the hybrids semi-men and semi-animals.

Around work

The violence of some of work of Annette Messager was décriée ( the Children with the striped eyes , in 1971-1972, photographs black and white barred with the pen ball of very young children, thus symbolically " tués" ). For a few years, Messager has invested broader fields and concerns of the contemporary world such as the Mad cow or artificial procreation.

Annette Messager received gold the Lion of the 51ème Biennale de Venise in 2005 for its installation Casino (French House) which is inspired freely by the character of Pinocchio. It is exposed in Paris and New York.

It also indicated Leave-to pass it from the Center Pompidou for the year 2007 - center which devoted the same year a retrospective exposure to him.

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