Vegetarian dinosaurs

Vegetarian dinosaurs
17 Jun.
19 Nov.

Lamarche-Ovize

Vegetarian dinosaurs

Florentine and Alexandre Lamarche-Ovize have worked as a duo since 2006, a set-up that is highly suited to their seemingly boundless thirst for knowledge and discovery. In the spirit of the renowned French geographer Jacques Elisée Reclus, they take stock of the world and capture the thousand and one details that make up its beauty. Their work aspires to be both profuse and curious. Fluid and ever-changing, it asserts no single truth, opting instead for subtle shifts, resonance and suggestion.

Paramount to their practice is drawing, a generous and abundant medium that is both a framework for interpretation and a subject for analysis. Always extremely enticing, it unfolds in a dizzying array of motifs, colours and techniques. It includes a few references to their ideal library – one that is naturally eclectic – comprising children’s books, comics and quite highbrow tomes on philosophy, geography, history and art. Unlike academic categorisation, Alexandre and Florentine Lamarche-Ovize strive to break down the hierarchy of genres and techniques, challenging the very standards of good taste. In their view, there is no such thing as ‘major’ or ‘minor’ art, nor is there any clear border to be crossed when moving between the two. Quite the contrary: everything merges together and combines – drawing, ceramics, textiles, etc. – to serve their narratives.

Each of Alexandre & Florentine Lamarche-Ovize’s exhibitions is designed as a mini-world theatre, complete with its own scenery and costumed figures, even boasting curtains and stage effects. A spectacle if ever there was one! Superb, yet never showy! The thought that art, like dogs (indeed one of their pet subjects), is man’s best friend is never far from the artists’ minds.