Squares / Yaëlle Beatrix
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Yaëlle Beatrix is a young French artist (born in Le Mans in 2000). She is now based in London. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Art and Design in Orléans (France), specializing in spatial design: architecture, scenography and landscape.
The artist’s studies have particularly influenced her work because she believes that a work of art cannot be satisfied with 2D space. Her various architectural works led her to free herself from the canvas to give a three-dimensionality to her works.
Yaëlle is a very manual artist who wants to realise the totality of these works by herself. From the wooden frame to the integration of light, everything is made with this care. Knowledge must not be a hindrance in the design of projects.
After having exhibited in Paris and in several small towns in France, it is in London that she wishes to settle.
The exhibition presented by the artist in July is called Squares
Through her works, the artist invites everyone to visit through the eyes, places that have interposed with her, touched sometimes, even disappointed. These different locations are symbolically represented. The play of mirrors, light and transparency allow an almost lyrical reading of all these works. “Transparency allows a somewhat blurred reading of all my landscapes, which in my opinion favours a subjective description of my work.” Indeed, the artist conveys a very personal image of the places she wants to talk about, but what is more important for her is the discussions that can be created around these landscapes. Therefore, she has not been interested in a realistic representation of places.
”My works are special places which you have to want to penetrate. The depth of my works is not only suggested, it is real”.
Light is one of the first mediums we learn to work with when we create a space. It allows to hide, to reveal, it has an even greater impact than colour on the atmosphere of a space, because it can give a direction. Through light, we can move people and their looks. For these reasons, light is an integral part of the artist’s work.
Yaëlle creates places that she calls her landscapes because they have for her a horizon, a continuity not inscribed and not palpable but which nevertheless exists. Yet all her paintings are in portrait format, and for what reasons? “My landscapes take into account the body of the visitors, I think that the portrait format invites more easily to the journey than the landscape format. I really want to give the impression to visitors, because that’s what they are, “visitors”, that they are facing a door to another place. Facing a window open to the world as Alberti said.”
The square is a word with multiple definitions whose meanings reflect the artist’s approach.
Basic, the edge is a quadrilateral with four equal sides and four right angles. But slowly the word was released from this rule to become the form of all objects resembling from near or far to a place. Then the square took volume by representing a space (especially through square feet) to finally become a real place, a space of greenery in the middle of a city. This evolution of the word, worthy of a pop-up is comparable to the artist’s approach. Indeed, the works of Yaëlle Beatrix are at first sight only a square hung on the wall, then by observing them, we discover another dimension, the square becomes 3D. Finally, when work is assimilated, the work becomes a place in which we can wander. The square (in the last sense of the word) is a place constantly crossed by the crowd. It is therefore a place of travel as much as a place of stop and discussion. Visitors to the exhibition will be invited to move around the exhibition room, then to stop in front of the landscape and their choice to continue to move intellectually, spiritually in the works of the artist.