Portraits of humanity
Marianne
In September 2016, winner of the Charente-based Les Tricoles Foundation, Thomas Petit undertook, in the hamlet of La Brousse, near Sers, a 3 x 4-meter sculpture in the limestone cliff above the Echelle stream. The sculpture represents "Marianne", whose hair intertwines the artistic emblems of various continents (including, for Africa, a Kota reliquary figure from Gabon): Thomas thus pays tribute to cultural diversity and to the Solutréen artists who, 23,000 years ago, carved the famous parietal frieze of horses, ibex, bison and a human figure at nearby Roc de Sers, now housed at the Musée de l'Archéologie Nationale in St-Germain-en-Laye.
Citation d'Etienne Féau
I created a sculpture on the face of an old quarry in Dignac, Charente (France), to showcase the local potential for stone and enhance an artistic journey in a natural environment. The subject I wanted to tackle was a free interpretation of a mixed-race "Marianne", with diverse and ancestral attributes from all over the world, to invoke living together and evoke the complexity of the French state's colonial past. A sort of interwoven cultural syncretism. But also a hymn to femininity, playing on a variety of symbols...
"Marianne" métisse, sculpture (Angoulême limestone) cut directly from the cliff at Dignac in Charente ( France). 3 meters by 4 wide, realized in 2016. Female portrait featuring ancestral symbols of the Tout-Monde, to symbolize the benefits of métissage and living together.
The Jaguar man
"The Jaguar man", for the Galaxie des Pierres Levées, in Crazannes aux Lapidiales. Sculpture for a large-scale project to bring together 366 monumental monoliths, and represent all cultures around the world at an average rate of 6 sculptors in residence each year and on a different culture. I was awarded the prize to represent the Amerindian cultures of South America, in 2017...
The sculpture would aim to perceive first and foremost the face of the shaman wearing the Jaguar mask. The Jaguar symbolizes the Earth, more or less stylized. It merges with the terrestrial monsters, whose wide-open jaws allow the solar god to emerge. The side cones symbolize clairvoyance. Tattoos and scarification marks. Tattoos and scarification marks provide information on social rank and even function, especially in the case of priests. Reference: La Tolita and Palenque cultures.
"In his frantic, sublime quest to reinvent the boundaries of beauty in order to approach the spheres of the divine, the creator becomes a soothsayer poet. Esquisse d'une danse avec l'au-delà (Outline of a dance with the beyond) constantly plays out and re-enacts the primordial cosmogonies that celebrate man's communion with animal and plant creatures." René Daumal.
"The Jaguar man",( limestone, 280h-80-80cm) created in 2017, as part of the "Galaxie des Pierres Levées" project in Crazannes (France), for the Lapidiales, on the theme of South American Amerindian cultures.
Daphné
"Daphne" (limestone, 190h-150l-110p), 2019, Angoulême, Charente (France). Sculpture created during a festival. Metamorphosis (Ovid) between woman and plant, against rape. And to maintain the close link between humanity and the preservation of nature...
Podcast inauguration, music and text
Portraits of humanity
Marianne
In September 2016, winner of the Charente-based Les Tricoles Foundation, Thomas Petit undertook, in the hamlet of La Brousse, near Sers, a 3 x 4-meter sculpture in the limestone cliff above the Echelle stream. The sculpture represents "Marianne", whose hair intertwines the artistic emblems of various continents (including, for Africa, a Kota reliquary figure from Gabon): Thomas thus pays tribute to cultural diversity and to the Solutréen artists who, 23,000 years ago, carved the famous parietal frieze of horses, ibex, bison and a human figure at nearby Roc de Sers, now housed at the Musée de l'Archéologie Nationale in St-Germain-en-Laye.
Citation d'Etienne Féau
I created a sculpture on the face of an old quarry in Dignac, Charente (France), to showcase the local potential for stone and enhance an artistic journey in a natural environment. The subject I wanted to tackle was a free interpretation of a mixed-race "Marianne", with diverse and ancestral attributes from all over the world, to invoke living together and evoke the complexity of the French state's colonial past. A sort of interwoven cultural syncretism. But also a hymn to femininity, playing on a variety of symbols...
"Marianne" métisse, sculpture (Angoulême limestone) cut directly from the cliff at Dignac in Charente ( France). 3 meters by 4 wide, realized in 2016. Female portrait featuring ancestral symbols of the Tout-Monde, to symbolize the benefits of métissage and living together.
The Jaguar man
"The Jaguar man", for the Galaxie des Pierres Levées, in Crazannes aux Lapidiales. Sculpture for a large-scale project to bring together 366 monumental monoliths, and represent all cultures around the world at an average rate of 6 sculptors in residence each year and on a different culture. I was awarded the prize to represent the Amerindian cultures of South America, in 2017...
The sculpture would aim to perceive first and foremost the face of the shaman wearing the Jaguar mask. The Jaguar symbolizes the Earth, more or less stylized. It merges with the terrestrial monsters, whose wide-open jaws allow the solar god to emerge. The side cones symbolize clairvoyance. Tattoos and scarification marks. Tattoos and scarification marks provide information on social rank and even function, especially in the case of priests. Reference: La Tolita and Palenque cultures.
"In his frantic, sublime quest to reinvent the boundaries of beauty in order to approach the spheres of the divine, the creator becomes a soothsayer poet. Esquisse d'une danse avec l'au-delà (Outline of a dance with the beyond) constantly plays out and re-enacts the primordial cosmogonies that celebrate man's communion with animal and plant creatures." René Daumal.
"The Jaguar man",( limestone, 280h-80-80cm) created in 2017, as part of the "Galaxie des Pierres Levées" project in Crazannes (France), for the Lapidiales, on the theme of South American Amerindian cultures.
Daphné
"Daphne" (limestone, 190h-150l-110p), 2019, Angoulême, Charente (France). Sculpture created during a festival. Metamorphosis (Ovid) between woman and plant, against rape. And to maintain the close link between humanity and the preservation of nature...
Podcast inauguration, music and text
Thomas Petit sculptor
