
Motionless Gravitation
Motionless Gravitation: transparency and opaque shades spreading and materializing in suspended “hieroglyphic-like forms” on its surface, halfway between the traces of a mystery emanating from the earth and the indescribable tensions of a hoped-for escape. Is it a temple? Or a hidden place, a hive of unspeakable magic? Or is it a door open to infinity, into a universe of souls waiting for their turn to live? One possible answer: the work stirs, disturbed by a passing breath. Our steps lead us into the core, into the circle that these shapes form, the material itself being the eye, the pupil, reflections, a prize ready for whoever stops and with a soft hand, grasps the clues.
The chords thus sing the air and the light, ethereal harps depict the sky and lend a certain winged-geometry to the slabs, structures and metal, while the secret life of engraved numbers, messages and vestiges of eternity come to the surface.
Jacques RITTAUD-HUTINET
Journey to the land of imagination
How long does it take for such a creation to see the light of day? Some would say several years, others only a few days, thus time no longer has any importance. During his career as a sculptor, Antoine Aranda has remained, as if suspended in time. Without any limits, moreover, his imagination has removed all notion of time. It is only the complete and accomplished work of art which matters. Antoine Aranda, elusive and insatiable, renders the moment endless, a moment where the spotlight is only on the unique piece of work. Antoine Aranda fired up and unpredictable, sculpts there where the waves flow, there where the gaze of others falls, encouraging the creative spirit to fulfil itself. He explores his material from new angles, within the confines of the working drawing and the sculpting. He brilliantly sweeps away generally-accepted ideas. The verticals are on the front line, the shapes lengthen with mastery. The curves become indistinct, the sculpture thus taking the liberty to exist in its own right. Antoine Aranda manages to blend material and space. In this maze of new horizons, this visionary sculptor defies time and invites our thoughts, inevitably, to lose themselves in reverie.
Pascal Vernier – March 2007
A chance meeting, a discussion...
And that is how it all started : a ceramic artist showed Antoine Aranda around his studio. After a long exchange of views, he placed 20 kilograms of clay into his hands and asked him to do something with it. Taken aback, knowing nothing about sculpture, Antoine Aranda found himself faced with a shapeless mass to which he had to give some form. What happened next was astonishing: his hands overtook his thoughts. They started to fashion, to design, to create, as if doted with some mysterious conscience. “Flamme” was born, then a face.
The sculpture continued to come through, impulsive and mysterious. “Nu Transcendental” seemed to flow from the movement of his hands. Curves formed, and then gradually revealed their secret: expressing the voluptuousness of their contours and their own sensuality which lent itself to refined portrayals of women. Femininity not embodied however: its space became the curve in all dimensions of its being.
Subsequently the work evolved to the point of simplicity where the energy, its emotional sweetness, its ardent subtlety became stronger than the material which expressed it.
With the death of a beloved mother, everything stopped. A total mental block, followed by two years deprived of art and soul.
Eventually one day, as if emerging from the ground, new sculptures reappeared after a long silence: from deeply-entrenched roots grew strange forms, torsos, torn from the depths of the earth, hatching into a surreal sky, the limits of which one can feel.
An escape from this world or a return to our origins, the search continued in a desperate quest to communicate and to share not only the sense but its resonance. The artist himself captive of some indescribable fluidity then discovered from deep down the mystery of numbers: the number three and the number five, carriers of the secret rhythms of life, the link between the self and the unknown.
The source of energy intensified yet further, a controlling wave taking over, linking, at last, spirit and infinity in a sort of sublime communication, thought being etched into the material, the ultimate connection, uniting beings to the universe, outside of all reason.
Then an event took place which summed up everything: one of his works was commissioned by a company which wanted to offer it to its personnel. Antoine Aranda thus created a tree made up of squares comprising the leaves, the trunk and the branches, a tree constructed using slabs placed flat on the ground that, from a terrace a few metres above could be seen in its entirety. The tree of life was offered as a view to be admired by a hundred or so people.
After pondering a while over it, each observer gets a little closer to it, seizes a ‘fragment’ of it and then leaves. A fascinating symbol that attests to the immense generosity of art, Antoine Aranda’s tree disappears to dwell henceforth in the hearts of mankind.
Jacques RITTAUD-HUTINET