Solanne Bernard

I work predominantly on large scale installations using ceramics, metal structures and video work, which I have adapted for an online viewing for this platform. All of the elements in the two works presented here have some form of frustration in them: a tongue unable to cross a screen, raw porous clay trapped in plastic paint, a video of a freckled chest in the place of walls, a virtual ‘mothering’ of the works... 

The presence of liquids - evaporating,melting, oozing - are used as forms of porous binding. This helps highlight the roles the fluidity and intertwinement of things together have in constructing a sense of unease and visceral displacement. The work explores how subjectivity can oscillate between human and object, pushing the material to see what it can do as subject, and find ways to act out the complexities between desire, violence, disgust.    

So I cracked an egg onto a plate.

The yolk sat there staring at me like a yellow eye; I couldn’t help stroking the surface with the tip of my index. The anticipation of how it would stick to my skin, what kind of mess it would make in the bowl when it spurted out. A childish fantasy probably - like when we used to cut worms in half, or squish beetles under our thumbs to see what colour would ooze out from their broken shells.  

I plunged my finger deep through the membrane and into the cold pus-like fluid. It burst, covering the sides of the bowl
with veins of gooey yolk. The streaks of yellow slowly dribbled down the curved edges, and settled into a viscous puddle at the bottom of the bowl. Immediately disinterested, I wiped my finger onto my jeans and walked away from the table.  

Desire is like that; brutally short-lived; onto the next thing.  

I sit back and wonder what I am playing at.

I wonder most days.