Thomas Deschamps, Interview de l'artiste peintre. [2012]

A travers la visite de son atelier à Montreuil, Thomas Deschamps nous invite à découvrir son univers et sa démarche artistique.<br />Plus d'information sur l'artiste : www.christies-deschamps.com<br /><br />Conception : Daniya Scheulov & Tristan Lecomte<br />Réalisation : Daniya Scheulov<br />Musiques : DJ CAM - COME WITH A STRING [Liquid Hip Hop-2004]<br />MOP MOP - FRANK & STEIN [The 11th Pill-2005]<br />Mulatu Astatke – Maskaram Setaba [Maskaram Setaba-1966]<br />DT//TD Production ©2012

THOMAS DESCHAMPS, artist-painter

This is the place where I paint,

my atelier near Montreuil.

I usually arrive in the morning,

I set everything up. I set my canvas.

I always follow my little ritual:

I get in, I turn on the music.

Usually, I put on jazz because

it gives a nice feeling when painting,

as it has a lot of rhythm and is not too aggressive.

So, this is what I call my laboratory.

What gives me a thrill when I'm painting

is the contrasts, composition, colors

and also the shape.

Considering this, one can think that

there is an unbalance in my paintings

but actually it is the dichotomy

in creating balance in something that is unbalanced.

I always follow this idea where I see myself

as an aerialist with a pendulum,

asking myself a question:

why I put the stroke here and not there

and how to counter-balance it.

In my paintings, the main leitmotiv is the nexus,

because it's a fundamental element of our society.

It makes each one of us linked to one another,

sometimes the string is invisible,

for example, my pants or my t-shirt,

it had to be created by someone,

so it means that there was a human hand involved

in the process of making it at some point.

And with this invisible string we are all connected.

It can be in virtual networks or

highway systems or even your address book's network.

It's an essential factor of our society.

At the same time, by playing with perspectives,

by interweaving and juxtaposing them,

it creates an optical illusion and gives a distorted vision of them.

Since we are coming towards a crucial moment, a time of changes,

we are in the middle of this distorted perspective of the future

and in the middle of questioning:

will the future lead to something or

are we heading towards a major mutation and

a breakdown in evolution of our society?

Because right now we are facing an economic crisis

and also an ecological crisis.

These two problems can't be avoided much longer

and we'll soon be forced to resolve them.

This is the reason why, in my paintings,

one can get lost in these perspectives,

navigate through these lines of force

and at the same time get a strong feeling of obstruction.

Somehow with these two aspects,

where the first one is optimistic,

and is represented by the bright, "pop" colors,

which is happy and linked to the childhood

where there is a great hope for renewal and transmutation.

And on the other side, there is the horizon that is

blocked by the lines of force that can also entrap.

And the viewer can feel being in between these two aspects.

For me, an artist's atelier is a real laboratory

where there is a constant research, in painting, in my case,

and this is what for is the most exciting.

The research, perpetual exploration of grounds

to define my universe, find the paths

and through these paths bringing out the emotions.

And and the end, when I create my paintings,

it's all those emotions that I have lived and absorbed

that do something that after several sketches

I start to paint and I arrive to this final result...