bio

Etienne Clément

Etienne Clément was born in Paris, 1965. He lives and works in London and Paris. In his series of works entitled ‘Toy Stories’, the photographs, set in vacant, dilapidated buildings, fasten their gaze on tangible but unexpected presences.

Reversing the conventional studio portrait format of placing the real-life subject against an idealized, fake background such as painted clouds or a rural idyll, Clément has used all-too-real, troubled environments as the backdrop for a series of very unconventional, mass produced figures.

The effect is darkly comic and, occasionally, disturbing. The subjects are tiny, secondhand toy figures, each of which must once have represented some kind of ideal for its young owner but have since gone astray. Close up, their flaws are revealed, in the approximation of their painted features and plastic physiologies.

They look like products of their neglected environment, emerging from darkened doorways like a travelling troupe of forgotten film characters, each apparently making a new bid for stardom: poorly painted geisha girls, blue cowboys and red indians, jumping G.I’s, and mad staring dolls… Against their abused institutional setting of white tiled walls, there’s a suggestion that these inmates have taken over the asylum, trashed the place and are individually taking their bow. Some leap, some punch the air, some simply return the stare of the viewer, challenging them to work out what on earth is going on.

By photographing children’s figurines in these empty and abandoned places, in these ‘imported’ film sets, and by combining both portraiture and architecture, Clément is staging imaginary untold stories. They are the very stories he once made up as a child, playing at home, his imagination released, having just returned from the forbidden derelict building nearby. The work is about regaining childhood, where imagination rules in a world without rules.

Whether seen just as toys with a story to tell or as something less innocent, Clément’s subjects take photographic portraiture into a bizarre new sphere.

Selected Solo Exhibitions

  • 2005 – Photofusion, London
  • 2004 – Palais des Congrès, Paris
  • 2003 – Geffrye Museum, London
  • 2002 – BALTIC, Gateshead
  • 2002 – The Architectural Association, London
  • 2002 – RIBA Architecture Gallery, London
  • 2001 – 291 Gallery, London
  • 2001 – Winchester Gallery, Winchester
  • 1999 – The Architectural Association, London
  • 1996 – The Architectural assciation, London

Selected Group Exhibitions

  • 1999 – Cecil Higgins Art Gallery, Bedford
  • 1999 – The Architectural Association, London
  • 1998 – Photokina, Köln
  • 1998 – Pasinger Fabrik, München
  • 1998 – Galerie für Architektur und Arbeit, Gelsenkirchen
  • 1998 – The Special Photographers’ Gallery, London
  • 1997 – Galerie Aedes East, Berlin
  • 1997 – Haus der Architekten, Stuttgart
  • 1997 – Kunst-und Ausstellungshalle der BRD, Bonn

Collections

  • Vivendi Universal
  • BNF (Bibliotèque Nationale de France)
  • Bouygues Immobilier
  • The Foreign and Commonwealth Office
  • The Geffrye Museum
  • BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art
  • ARTpoint
  • C.Z.W.G. Architects
  • Milton Keynes Council
  • Gateshead Council
  • London Borough of Hackney

Awards

  • 1997 – European Architectural Photographer of the Year, 2nd Prize

Education

  • 1985-1987 – Art History, Ecole du Louvre, Paris
  • 1983-1985 – English History and Civilisation, D.E.U.G. (BA), La Sorbonne, Paris

Press

  • 2005 – Miser and Now, Gutted, Urban Issue
  • 2005 – Source 42, Exhibition Reviews, Spring 2005
  • 2005 – Blueprint, ‘Cowboy Builder’
  • 2005 – The Information, The Independent, ‘Private View’
  • 2004 – Business Immo, ‘Visions nocturnes’, Edition Spéciale
  • 2003 – B, YEAR ONE, BALTIC
  • 2005 – Blueprint, ‘Get Your Hands Dirty’, Exhibition Review, Grant Gibson
  • 2005 – The Times Magazine, ‘Fraught & Social’, Kate Muir
  • 2005 – Blueprint, ‘Big Picture’
  • 2005 – Time Out, London, ‘February Preview’
  • 2002 – The Independent Magazine, BALTIC Journey, “Portrait Of A New Gallery”
  • 2005 – The Arts Council Of England and August Media Ltd, ‘Pride Of Place’
  • 2005 – Blueprint, ‘Art For Art’s Sake’
  • 2005 – The Independent Sunday Review, ‘The Broader Picture’
  • 2005 – db Deutsche Bauzeitung, ‘db 2/02 London’
  • 2001 – Building, ‘Art and Industry’
  • 2005 – L’Architecture d’Aujourd’hui, News / Installation
  • 2005 – The Independent Magazine, ‘Portfolio’
  • 2000 – Actar/BALTIC Publications, TARATANTARA, Anish Kapoor
  • 2005 – Blueprint, ‘Night Stalker’
  • 2005 – August Media Ltd / Birkhäuser, ‘City Levels’
  • 2005 – Faber Faber, cover image for ‘The Black Album’ by Hanif Kureishi
  • 1999 – Le Millenium, Illustrated Exhibition Preview, Japan
  • 2005 – Creative Camera, Illustrated Exhibition Preview
  • 2005 – ARTpoint, ‘The Building Drawn Inside out”
  • 2005 – Frieze, Anish Kapoor at BALTIC
  • 2005 – Tate, Baltic
  • 1998 – BALTIC Newsletter No1
  • 2005 – BJP, ‘On View’
  • 1997 – A.A. Publications, ‘Alejandro de la Sota’
  • 2005 – db Deutsche Bauzeitung, Architektur Schwarzweiß
  • 2005 – PHOTO Technik International, Europäscher Architekturfotografie-Preis
  • 1996 – The Independent Magazine, ‘Nightscapes’, cover story with Jonathan Glancey
  • 2005 – WORLD Architecture, Gallery
  • 1995 – ES Magazine, London Landmarks

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