The body as an enigma, I explore it, step by step, like a space that I need to reconstruct, to unify. Fabrics are materials that came naturally to me as an analogy to our own biological tissues: bones, fibers, crystals… I start with old bed sheets and shirts, embroided handkerchieves and second-hand fabrics that I cut up, put the fragments together, pad them and then sew them by hand. In this way I reconstruct different body parts (arms, legs, heads) and several organs and bone structures.
Observing anatomy fills me with wonder and respect. In my eyes, there is nothing morbid in anatomy; I can only see beauty and the wonderful complexity of forms and of vital functions. I cannot stop wondering, I ask myself, time after time, « why this hand, this foot, this heart …? ». Of what the body itself is a reflection? Following this line of thought I find that anatomy possesses also a hidden dimension that connects us to an invisible, ideal order of things and also to a secret, dreamlike reality. To represent both, I use the preciosity of pearls and crystals, of lace and flowers, of animals and chimeras etc…
My sculptures are white to remind us of an invisible universe, far away from our own world, a dimension of unity and purity. White allows me also to connect all sculptures among themselves, to create a line of connection beyond the singularity of each work and recreate the complexity of the universe they remind of. So, it can take the shape of a bone or the face of a goddess but all my sculptures are creatures of the same ideal universe where matter and spirit are in harmony.
Karine Jollet
"Tribute to hypophysis - Brain", 2011, old bed sheet, shirt, embroidery, pearl, polyester fiber and electric wire, 70cm x 19cm x 19cm. ©Karine Jollet
"Heart Arborescence" (detail), 2011, old bed sheet, pearls, embroidery, wadding and wire, 95cm x 55cm x 35cm. ©Karine Jollet
"Foot bones", 2007, old bed sheet, lace, pearls, satin and wadding, 28cm x 10cm x 17cm. ©Karine Jollet
"Empty Space - Skull", 2006, old bed sheet, lace, pearls, wadding and wire, 22cm x 15cm x 13cm. ©Karine Jollet
"Ancestor", 2005, old bed sheet and wadding, 36cm x 43cm x 25cm. ©Karine Jollet
"Containers - Feet", 2005, old bed sheet, satin, wadding and wire, 14cm x 25cm x 11cm each foot. ©Karine Jollet
"Relics", 2004, old bed sheet, wadding and wire, 40cm x 8cm x 11cm each arm. ©Karine Jollet
"Shroud", 2007, "boutis" on cotton handkerchieves, 40cm x 40cm. (Boutis is an old traditional technique, mainly developed in the south of France. The drawing is sewn on two pieces of fabrics and between them is inserted a cotton wick). ©Karine Jollet
"Lungs", 2007, "boutis" on a cotton tunic. ©Karine Jollet
Karine Jollet
BIO
Karine Jollet was born in 1971. She studied in Paris applied arts with special attention to sculpture, metals and design. Her main area of research has always been the relationship of content and container or, in other terms; the relationship of the outer skin of things and their interior. Looking for soft and flexible materials, in order to discover a less aggressive contact with the form, eventually took her to textile sculpture. Over time, the human body became her main object of sculptural research. Since 2003 Karine Jollet has presented her work in private and collective exhibitions in France and abroad and mainly in Switzerland, Belgium, Italy and Japan.
