It was in 2011 while preparing an exhibition of my etchings that I almost mechanically stapled these monotypes together by color series, one pink, one black. I see myself again, so tired from the short nights as a young father, hanging them from the wheel of the press in this small carpeted room with closed shutters and having a luminous vision when I step back.
I see a scene from Kurosawa’s film Ran. I see scales of armor in close-up, then a wider shot of a soldier wearing the armor, then an even wider shot of an army of soldiers, horses and flags. Suddenly, the two armies become masses, piles each with its own color, blue and red.
This succession of elements forms ever larger bodies, in stages; these elements, whatever the scale, are precarious and yet allow order to emerge from chaos. Ultimately this scene does not exist as is in the film but, from then on, I call this work “Ran”.
And since…