Conveyer Belt

Gilles Dusong (b. 1995) enjoys moving through liminal spaces. Both literally and figuratively. His sculptures are reminiscent of strange machines designed for habitation, or for travelling through space and time. Their individual parts resemble mechanical components; brought together to form ingenious, often symmetrical structures, they evoke modular living forms from retro-visions of humanity’s future.

Gilles plays with their scale and places them in ambiguous contexts – on night-time beaches or amongst aquatic plants. This imbues them with narratives, a sense of adventure and even the aura of a new kind of nature. This is paradoxical, given that Gilles’ sculptures are created without the touch of a human hand. In contrast are his pencil drawings, which are meticulously crafted by hand, yet possess a sculptural rigidity. His drawings reveal, each in their own way, the strange fringes of our lived world: nocturnal landscapes, peripheries and activities on the edge of the visible.

In his work, Gilles connects the present with a future tinged by the past. And he invites us to reflect on the question of how human that future will remain. The white and silver of his sculptures convey a certain innocence… or is it, in fact, the colour of alienation?