Conversation | Vincent Olinet
There are artists and there are ‘artists’. Vincent Olinet falls in the latter category. Sculptor Olinet is a French artist who takes childhood whimsy and adds his unique blend of decay, crafting objects that question our take on beauty and the desirable. His work has been exhibited at the Museum Beelden aan Zee in La Haye, MAC/VAL in Vitry-sur-Seine, New Contemporary Art Center in Moscow, Musée national d’archéologie in Domaine de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, and Kunsthalle Darmstadt in Germany.
We were honoured to interview Olinet on his giant lopsided decaying cakes, canopy beds and lipsticks. He shares his inspiration, the story behind his career and so much more. Please read on…
1. Mr Olinet. Thank you for granting this interview to Story Magazine. We are enthusiasts of your work. We are intrigued.. what was the ‘aha’ moment that led you to become an artist? What has been your journey thus far?
As far as I can remember, I always enjoy creating. As a child, I wanted to be a filmmaker and then a cartoonist. I realised that by becoming an artist, all these aspirations can be melded together. I guess the ‘aha’ moment was when in art school, I decided to let go of making conceptual works and started making cakes in a sloppy, crazy way because it was a more authentic manner of creating to me. I got a lot of enthusiastic responses and it motivated me to continue on this path. After graduating with honours from École de Beaux Arts in Lyon, I spent 2 years at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam and later, I lived in Brussels for a few years. I am now based in Paris.
2. From pieces that explore the notions of time with relation to the human experience, to the large scale structures that exude the whimsical, please tell us about your work and the stories behind them? Could you also tell us why you prefer working in large scale?
I use intuitively the inclinations of collective unconscious for their power of attraction. Extravagant cakes, colourful lipsticks, the four-poster bed, large slices of bread— all these are symbolically universal and it feels naturals for me to reinterpret them in my own way. There is a method to the madness in the way I work.
I place no limit in size or amount of material to make work. I am interested to find the fastest way to seize the audience and catch that moment when they use their guts rather their brains to appreciate the artwork. The power of the sculpture lies in its presence facing the audience, hence a tree has to be large and a four-poster bed has to be extravagant. Often, enlarging the scale is meant to create a distortion of reality— like a 3 meter tall cake or a 100kg slice of watermelon.
3. Bed canopies, giant tiered cakes, coloured pieces of toast, giant lipsticks sculptures… there is childlike optimism about your work. Is this an intentional pre-thought to making your art? If so, could you share why this an important part of your ethos?
I try to tap into a universal language. We all share a lot of similarities in childhood experience in terms of having no limit to imagination, unrealistic dreams, curiosity and enthusiasm. Art accesses subconscious choices and experiences. I feel I can mix all these energies into my artworks. Making is being, and I really appreciate the ability to manifest things into our realities as if to say, “ See, it can exist.”
4. Pieces like your cake sculptures, the ‘mop wig’ series and other works regularly feature an interesting palette of pastels paired with unexpected colours that wrestle the viewer’s attention. You are quite the colourist. What informs the palette of your work?
I always love colours and always have been attracted by them. I like to challenge them by putting them in different juxtaposition and combination. The human eye us made to see millions of colours, and I am making use of this power. I love colours that repulse me so I can be the first of the audience to be surprised. I also obsessively collect images, objects with distinctive colours for inspiration.
5. What inspires and influences your work?
Mainly the visual shocks that I experiences in life as well as various unrelated ideas that somehow got clustered together in my head. For example, I love bread and butter, it’s a staple breakfast food. I also love mass-produced resin and plastic objects. And I am interested in product designs. Often, these 3 aspects of contemporary life merge together in my imagination and become artworks. My French upbringing and culture is significant in my thinking but beyond this, is the experience as a European and tapping further are the strong influences of American and Japanese culture growing up in the 80s and 90s.
6. Which piece by you was your most career defining moment?
Tracing back to my student years, the cakes were my first defining artwork which took me from a student to an artist. They were also the first artworks that collectors bought and this strengthen my confidence as an artist. Later, the floating four-poster bed got a lot of interest. When I started to use social media, it was the hair mops that became viral and helped my career by gaining attention beyond the art circle.
7. What can we expect from you in the future?
Ideas could take years of gestation before it can become real. So I let them incubate until they are ready to exist. Once that moment arrives and I feel the idea is enough formed, then I will need to make it as soon as possible. Currently, ideas that I am exploring in my mind are personal hygiene products like perfume and shampoos. I am also thinking a lot about shellfish like scallops and oysters.
8. What are your favourite art pieces made by other artists?
Without a doubt, Urs Fischer, and also the great masters like Rembrandt, Manet, Caravagio and works of the Italian Primitives which I find still resonate in our contemporary time because they possess a lot of emotions.
9. What is the one thing you want our readers to know about your and your work as an artist?
That although my work seem obvious, spontaneous or effortless, they are yielded through time, thoughts and experimentation.
10. Art by Vincent Olinet is synonymous with?
Finesse et brutalité
We at Story Magazine cannot thank Mr Olinet enough for granting us this interview. We are a big enthusiasts of his work and are fascinated with how he tackles decay and beauty. Please visit his website here and his Instagram handle is @vincentolinet. All images used are courtesy of Vincent Olinet.