Artists

What does it mean when sterility denotes not the end of life, but its general state? Romain Carrés (he/him) work operates at the intersection of art and science and explores how we might conceive of the world beyond our own perception. He combines organic and synthetic materials, living and non-living entities, and different forms of intelligence. Romain recreates the sensory experiences of the world: as an interwoven network in which nothing exists in isolation.

For Meditating Sterility Romain had artificial intelligences develop concepts of sterility. The result was a sculpture that lies somewhere between an organ, a mutation, a flower and a fossil. Living orchids populate its body; water from the Eulach river nourishes them; scents and pheromones connect them to their surroundings. The sculpture becomes a host and a place of mutual dependence. Meditating Sterility asks what life means when its conditions are increasingly artificially created and altered.

What does the term ‘sculpture’ mean to you?
I practise sculpture as the creation of a thing, not a representation, not merely a form, but a body: one that evolves through time and space, interacts with its surroundings and with other agents, digital or living, and carries an aura — a scent, a movement — testifying to an existence beyond what is visible through it.

You have an unusual educational background—civil engineering, architecture, ine arts, astronomy and astrophysics. How do these areas of study influence your artistic practice?
I pursued my studies to answer questions I had about the world, rather than to prepare for a profession, really. And through science I learned, answer after answer, how to doubt. My work today continues the same research, using the tools I gathered along the way. I am drawn to questions that found no answer where I looked for them, and to the poetics of that unknown.