Hatchikian Gallery welcomes the second part of the triptych “IX”: Antonomase, solo show by Steph Cop.
The strength of Steph Cop's sculptures communicates with everyone: these nine sculptures call for contemplation. Aro brings serenity and appeasement.
Sitting alongside an ARO and waiting for them to tell their story for a simple wonder.
This second painting, inseparable from the entire triptych, forms a parenthesis on the incompleteness of a sculpture of a Tree, called Antonomasius.
"Concentrate on the essential: go to the rawest, certainly not to the simplest" -Steph Cop
In 1761, a tragic hurricane brought down hundreds of century-old trees in the Morvan massif. This is where the artist Steph Cop set up his studio, after starting his career in Paris: starting with a line, a drawing, an emotion to end with an ARO. This ARO has come a long way; from resin in 2001, to vinyl in 2006, to finally become Wooden ARO in 2009. The ARO was built with its creator, for nearly 10 years.
ARO is in Steph Cop, and the latter did not have the choice to live with. He thus created his world, his imaginary friend (“IF”) with 6 facets: a cube, which is none other than the head of a tree; 6 virtual characters being part of one, ARO is a whole. It stands for Obsessional Reflex Analysis.
For Steph Cop, each subject has its own language. He expresses himself through these Imaginary friends from 2000. These are allegories of his emotions, allowing him to protect himself from the outside world, from human relations.
This protection has also pushed the artist to settle in the Morvan, where he locks himself up to better free himself. Relentlessly surveying the forests of the black mountains in search of these hundred-year-old trees in which he imagines an ARO, Steph Cop lets himself be guided by the tree to become one with this being. He discovers what the tree really is through the blows of his chainsaw, he explores a natural balance of power in which the mechanics are under the influence of the organic.
To say that his art stems from a conflicting relationship with wood would be mistaken: “the conflict is with oneself, not with wood”. The creation of Steph Cop is obsessive: the hand only follows the lines marked by time. Copelini, Robur, Ashraw, the Column, or even Brain Cube Amusement are therefore falsely similar, the artist playing with the faults of the wood to extract the majestic form, ARO.
Each tree is unique, each ARO is unique.
The soul of wood builds that of Man, that of this artist in perpetual introspection.
"We have the soul that we build ourselves" -Steph Cop
It's in the middle of the black mountains
may the dead tree marked by the centuries lie peacefully.
He alone is the story of life
of a fallen seed,
of a tree that shelters more than one mystery,
of a sealed secret.
The sculpture
substitution of a spellbinding expression
embodies the soul of the tree.
One rencontre
which frees from its massive setting,
Antonomasis.
- Steph Cop
Photo credit : Balint Porneczi
Social networks Steph Cop (instagram): @Steph_Cop
