Etienne Chambaud

Neo-conceptual artist Etienne Chambaud is known for subversive acts that question context, representation, and meaning and frequently evoke the French preoccupation with the Guillotine. For Atlas (2011), he carved out forms from pages of an open atlas, leaving behind muddled maps of bizarrely combined political and geographical entities. Likewise, working in the tradition of Marcel Duchamp, his “Objets Rédimés” (Redeemed Objects, 2010), are a contemporary take on readymades; Chambaud does not present the everyday objects (like umbrellas, books, or ropes) themselves, but rather glass reproductions of them. Moreover, only when dropped from the gallery ceilings and shattered on the ground are the works completed. One critic noted Chambaud’s “dadaesque linguistic agility and playfulness,” adding, “he holds up a mirror to contemporary artmaking and display, and then shatters it before us.”