A brush with… Camille Henrot

Camille Henrot talks to Ben Luke about her influences—from writers to musicians, film-makers and, in fact, different artists—and the cultural experiences which have formed her life and work. Henrot was ​​born in 1978 in Paris and studied movie on the École Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs within the French capital.

She makes use of drawing, portray, sculpture, set up and movie to mirror on an enormous vary of subject material, from anthropology and the local weather emergency, to biodiversity and motherhood, to artwork historical past, literature and the excesses of the digital expertise. On the coronary heart of her apply is a priority with completely different types of language and information and the way they’re structured and composed.

Her work emerges from deep analysis and is stuffed with intriguing contradictions, awash with fragmentation and disruption but pregnant with humour and delight. Henrot grapples with the stuff round us and inside us; her artwork explores distinctively how the empirical and the subjective, the outer world and her personal non-public realm, intersect.

She discusses her early and enduring ardour for the artwork of Saul Steinberg and Louise Bourgeois, a profound friendship with the architect and thinker Yona Friedman, discovering a kindred expertise within the work of Hélène Cixous and Clarice Lispector, her use of musical playlists within the studio, and her fascination with the sadistic violence of Disney cartoons. Plus, she provides perception into her life within the studio and has a profound reply to our final query: “what’s artwork for?”

• Camille Henrot’s books Milkyways and Mom Tongue are printed by Hatje Cantz and priced £22 and £48.

This podcast is sponsored by Bloomberg Connects, the humanities and tradition app.

The free app gives entry to an enormous vary of worldwide cultural organisations via a single obtain, with new guides being added repeatedly. They embody a number of museums by which Camille Henrot has proven her work, together with the Drawing Heart in New York and ICA/Boston. In the event you obtain the information to the ICA, you’ll discover a complete part on the institute’s exhibitions, together with Forecast Kind: Artwork within the Caribbean Diaspora, Nineteen Nineties-Right this moment, which runs till 25 February 2024. It options audio and video responses to key works within the present, together with these by Ana Mendieta and Keith Piper.