Interview with Chloé Poizat

q)Please introduce yourself.

a)My name is Chloé Poizat. My english is not well, so I'll do laconic answers. I'm french !

q) Where do you live and work?

a)I live and work in Paris, France.

q) How would you describe your work to someone who has never seen it?

a)My principal interest goes on the bizzare, the metamorphosis and the modification.

q) How did you start in the arts? How/when did you realize you were an artist?

a)I wasn't interested a lot by school, and the almost only thing that gave me pleasure was drawing and painting. I think it was, and it still is, a necessity to do something with this, to feel me well in life.

q) What are your favorite art materials and why?

a)I don't know if I really have a favorite medium, I like to change often ; if I don't, I am bored. I take fresh air with new mediums and come back with the others with new ideas and a fresh look.

q) What/who influences you most?

a)It can be many things. A movie, a book, an artist, a photograph, a landscape or the everyday life.

q) Describe a typical day of art making for you.

a)An all day pasted in my studio during 8 or 10 hours. I'm not in "production-action" all day, I can read, look books, reflect, to wander in my mind.

q) Do you have goals, specific things you want to achieve with your art or in your career as an artist?

a)I hope not ! I prefer to think that's impossible. As least, I can discover things which I'll not discover maybe if I had goals.

q) What contemporary artists or developments in art interest you?

a)I am very interested formally by the italian primitives. And I like Polke, Twombly, Rauschenberg, Richter (to quote only the principal ones). All old painters…

q) How long does it typically take you to finish a piece?

a)I really don't know. I can begin a piece and I often wait for several months to finish it. So it's certainly a lot of time ! It will be well to do it faster !

q) Do you enjoy selling your pieces, or are you emotionally attached to them?

a)It depends. Yes if I think the piece can't teach me something new about my work. For the others, I can be frustrated knowing that I'll not be abble to see them any more. But despite of that it's good to keep only the memory of these pieces, that makes it possible to go on.

q) Is music important to you? If so, what are some things you're listening to now?

a)Yes sometimes. I listen free jazz for a main part. I like nervous music, nervous like me. One of my favourite is Ornette Coleman.

q) Books?

a)A lot. I'm really doped of literature. I can't imagine a day/a life without it. Proust, Dostoievsky, Siniac, Bolaño, Don Dellilo, Faulkner, Capote, etc… Too long listing.
I also read books about art theory ; in this moment, I read the writings of Rothko.

q) What theories or beliefs do you have regarding creativity or the creative process?

a)I don't have theory (for my personal use), I think that's instintive, It's a question of survival. Then, the conscience and the culture come to support this instinct.

q) What do you do (or what do you enjoy doing) when you're not creating?

a)I like to read a lot, go to the cinema, to see exhibitions and travelling. All of these things belong integral part to my work. I never cut with my work, even if I'm not in a production's period.

q) Do you have any projects or shows coming up that you are particularly excited about?

a)I always have projects in progress, to finish, start, experiment. Days are too shorts. For now I have artist books projects, and an exhibition in Switzerland in 2010 where I'll show a work of 365 drawings, makes between on May 23th, 2008 and on May 23th, 2009.

q) Do you follow contemporary art scenes? If so, how? What websites, magazines, galleries do you prefer?

a)Not really, but I make the turn of the Parisians galleries from time to time, I see exhibitions regularly, I follow also the FIAC and others fairs in Paris and when I travel I see exhibitions or fairs too. When I can, I go to the Venice's biennial. It's not enough…

q) Ask yourself a question you'd like to answer, and answer it.

a)Nothing interesting comes to my mind.

q) Any advice for aspiring artists?

a)Keep going. Be yourself even or especially if it's bad.

q) Where can we see more of your work online?

a)Not much for now.
On my website as illustrator, it's only a part of my work > www.chloepoizat.com
On one of my gallerist website > www.galerie-martine-gossieaux.com
On a blog of drawings project > http://le-dessin-du-jour.blogspot.com/