It was love at first sight. A few years ago, I found the perfect light sculpture for a dark corner of my apartment by an artist working in Brittany named Valérie Boy ...
It was the first annual pre-Christmas Salon de la Récup, that featured a few dozen up-and-coming artists working mostly with recuperated materials, taking place a few doors down from me at the Espace Blanc Manteaux. “Féérie Florale” was a six-foot-tall rectangular piece of white powder-coated metal out of which Valérie Boy had hand-cut a spray of flowers. She strung waterproof Christmas lights on the backside of the piece, which looked like a carved sculpture by day, and a poetic constellation of glowing flower-fairy lights (or stars from across the room) by night.
We made a deal (including that I would pay her in three installments and that she could keep the model until the end of the 10-day salon, for others to see and eventually order). And on New Years day, she hand-delivered it and installed it on the wall of my apartment. It makes me sigh with happiness every time I light it.
And soon I won’t be the only one. Valérie Boy won the Prix de la Découverte at the bi-annual professionals-only design gathering, Maison et Objet, in 2004. And wandering the mob scene at this year’s final installment, I was taken by a light fixture that looked like Valérie’s work, only with a less handmade edge.
It was in fact a preview of her new collection for SCE -- and I’m told, will soon be appearing in the window of the BHV, Galeries Lafayette and a few other key Paris lighting stores. SCE has streamlined the cuts of her design and installed a changing light LED.
The new collection has more polish than the original, but the light sculptures still gracefully walk the line between art and adornment -- and will come in a number of shapes, patterns and sizes.
- Kristin Hohenadel blogging from rue Vieille du Temple, Paris, France. She can be reached at kristinh @ apartmenttherapy . com
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oh, it's just gorgeous!
wow- it's breathtaking! I'm already scheming on what i can remove from my apartment to make room for this.
stunning - i could find a place for this.
wow, I love this! I'm already thinking of how I can create something similar for myself...
Fantastic! Pretty sure it'll be out of my price range, but as soon as I get a job with twice my current salary...
dancingspring, I'm not sure about your craftiness, but I'm wondering if something similar couldn't be acheived with cutting into a gessoed canvas. You wouldn't get the fab three-dimensional effect, but the light would be similar. If that worked, this would only cost as much as a canvas, a pot of gesso, and the right blades. If, of course, you were the sort of person to spend hours doing this, and open to the idea of it not working out.
Oh, this is beautiful.
Hmmm. I love it.
I've been thinking of painting a huge canvas for interest on one living room wall... now this! I like the opononax's idea of DIY --- maybe stretching fabric over a frame... oooh I don't want to give it away... I'll show you all when I'm done!
This is lovely, especially the original piece. I'm so envious!
I think it could be DIY with a heavy enough stretched canvas and several coats of an acrylic gesso. maybe add some acrylic medium on top of that so it will hold dimension?
i like your hand cut one much better than the new LED machine made ones. congrats on some lovely artwork
I really love the original piece. It's breathtaking. The other pieces though, seem cold (to me).
The original piece is beautiful... Can anyone suggest basic tools to hand cut metal similar to this piece. Thanks.
JD
i love it! totally thought it was a boontje when i first saw it..
That was gorgeous.
Matt at www.goodnightmoonfuton.com
I think you could do with with a sheet of tin.
Love that-so pretty!
Wow. Breathtaking. Opoponax, I think you're onto something with the canvas idea. You've got me thinking now.....
This is completely amazing! I need this NOW. Please tell me she is planning on bringing this to the states.
i love this! can it can only be bought in Paris?
The original is absolutely beautiful. And some of the others--though they do look "manufactured" are lovely. I'd be happy to own such a thing.
But it does make me smile--the comment about tin is so a propos.
It seems that no matter what, sooner or later folk art becomes reinterpreted and evolves into fine art. And these are works of art, indeed.
(So I got the italics to turn on--how do I turn them off?)
While they are all beautiful, the original is really stunning. I second JD's request - what tools would one use to do something like this with metal?
SD913,
The SCE series does not yet have a US distributor.
Thanks Kristin. Guess I'll have to charter a jet to Paris then.
Give me a reason, any reason, to head to La Marais again. This lamp might just clinched the deal. (Well, a falafel at La Du could do it as well)
That first one is such an amazing piece. Although I would love to have this in my place, I would probably walk by and slash myself on the metal.
This one has a painted mylar interior and they halogen-projected it onto stretched gauze. Not as dramatic, but still pretty cool: http://www.dutchbydesign.com/content/products/detail.cfm?Category=Tord%20Boontje&Product=Morning%20Garden%20Gr&CatID=25&ProdID=587&r=UK
Pixie,
Actually, Valérie Boy took care to sand all the millions of cuts and rough edges, so it feels smooth to the touch and isn't dangerous. It's also waterproof in case you want to put it outside, another plus!
the original is absolutely breathtaking. fantastic buy!
for a DIY, you could do it on metal by piercing, using a jeweler's saw and small blades.
The first one--the big one--is absolutely, stunningly beautiful, and it's a perfect demonstration of what somebody said above--the transmutation of craft into art in the hands of someone with vision. Having said that, I gotta say that the commercial versions don't even come anywhere close to capturing the magic of the original.
Not that assembly-line copies can't have their own appeal, because they can--the late paintings of Childe Hassam prove that, and, if sales figures are any indictaion, so does the work of Thomas "Painter of Crap" What's-His-Name--but, here, the new pieces seem dumbed way down from the promise of that first piece, and going by just these photos, the whole technique looks like it's well on the way to reverting back to mere craftsiness again. Of course, commercial production methods may not allow for the subtle nuances & the almost organic flow of that first piece, but the execution of the designs isn't the real problem here anyway, it's the graphic quality of the designs themselves. I mean, I can see that dragonfly piece--and don't get me wrong, I love dragonflies, despite their current trendiness--in the cutesy bedroom of a ten-year old girl. And the utter lack of imagination in the design of that long skinny piece gives it the look of a home-made rip-off of the lovely original by someone who only saw it once. It's like someone with no ideas was just filling up space. Too, the switch from the warm glow that comes from the original's honest use of plain old Christmas lights to cold & tricky effects of color-changing LEDs absolutely kills the romance of the piece and gives it the look of mall art. I envision rows of identical desk-top-sized knockoffs coming soon to a dollar store near you.
None of this, however, diminishes the loveliness of that first piece. Artists should be judged on the quality of their art, not on how much they produce. And that big, handmade one is a s a knockout.
"Thomas Painter of Crap Whats-His-Name" (thank you, magnaverde!) is Thomas Kinkade. If anyone doubts that this is seriously, seriously awful stuff, check out the website. This is the stuff sold at airport hotels for "$79 for a genuine oil painting!!!!!" except that he's charging a fortune.
http://www.thomaskinkade.com
The original is of course also my favorite, and to me has the most heart, as it bears the traces of the hands of the artist, irregular cuts and all (and it was so much cheaper, luckily for me!).
But in a way I think it's unfair to compare them. I probably should have written separate posts about the original and the mass-produced versions, with separate photos, so we could judge them each on their own terms. But I waited until Valérie Boy's work was available to a larger audience before writing about her.
The photographs don't really do either of them justice. But they are both lovely in their own way.
magnaverde - when you said "Of course, commercial production methods may not allow for the subtle nuances & the almost organic flow of that first piece..," you made me think that it seems that it would have been just as easy if they had laser cut the design (they did already, didn't they?) or something of the sort, but make it where you push/bed out all the peices - so they're not flat like that? and i COMPLETELY agree about the LEDs - not liking that at all - looks like something that belongs in Claire's.
*sigh* if only I had the time to make one of my own!
*bend not bed
If I was to reproduce this, the easiest way would be to create something in Adobe Illustrator or Inkscape. Then, give this to your local machine shop that has either a laser jet or a water jet, and have them go to town cutting everything out. It would get programmed into the computer, and it would come out perfectly. Additionally, you could have them even powdercoat it for you, but that's more $$. Then, you get your cutout from them and spend a while making the bends as you need them. Cutting it out by hand would take forever and a year, not to mention a mistake would be disastrous. You could probably recreate something like this for less than $150.
Brian K., if it is as easy as you say, I would pay you $350 to recreate one of these for me!
I also love the original, but the machine-made ones aren't too bad either. I suspect they would look more "authentic" in person. However, I have to admit that my initial reaction to the first piece was 'it looks like Tord Boontje.'
I could imagine hooking up a photocell to one of these and having the LEDs light up automatically like a nightlight. It would definitely be an incentive to keep the other lights in the house turned off!
Wow love this!
This question from a reader: Hi Kristin,
I was just on apartmenttherapy.com and saw your posting dated 9/17/07 re: Valerie Boy. Is her work available for sale? If yes, how can one go about to purchase an item? I don't doubt this is going to be pricey, however I'd love to know how much because I'm absolutely in love with the item in the photo at the SCE show. I also like the one in the first 2 photos.
I'd appreciate any information you can provide. If it's within my price range, I'd be more than happy to pay for shipping to the US.
Please contact SCE via the link provided in the post. If you'd like to contact Boy directly about commissioning other work, I have also provided a link to her personal website.
Thanks for your interest!
Boy takes commissions, so if you are interested in an original piece like the one in the top photo, you can contact her directly at 33 6 68 17 17 07 or valerie.boy@free.fr
Hmm, so just how much money ARE we talking about here?
In the UK the furniture shop Heals is selling a wall lamp designed by Valerie Boy. Nowhere near as delightful as the installation, but still lovely. See http://www.heals.co.uk/Wall-Lights/Quadra-Laser-Cut-Flower-Wall-Light/invt/296826&bklist=icat,5,shop,lighting,wall_lights,mycatref.
Fair warning, there's now a pin on Pinterest linking back to this image and post, but the instructions under the pin involve spray paint, decals, and canvas.
Pinterest bought me here. I didn't see any of those weird directions. Your piece (the first) is far more beautiful that the others. Just absolutely gorgeous!
ummm... ok so you are insulting one of the most collected painters of ALL TIME?... Or did i misread that ill thought out comment? Thomas kinkade is amazing. His work is AMAZING. Anyone who says otherwise is ignorant.
vooow! this is stupendous!
If I could produce them in large scales, my customers would like to buy them.
If there is anybody who can do it please contact me from my Armine website.
The instructions could be more clear though.
the first one is absolutely the most beautiful one.
Thanks for the share...