La goutte qui déborde du vase, 2026
Created and presented at the Fondation des États-Unis in Paris, France.
Additonal sound residency with Augustin Braud and Fabien Enger at La Muse en Circuit.
Photography by Grégoire Perrier
Additonal sound residency with Augustin Braud and Fabien Enger at La Muse en Circuit.
Photography by Grégoire Perrier
La goutte qui déborde du vase, or The drop that overflows the vase, takes its name from the French idiom, La goutte d’eau qui fait déborder le vase–equivalent to the English, The straw that broke the camel’s back. This body of work investigates the role of a river in an urban setting, specifically, the Parisian Seine, exploring our relationship to the built environment. It questions our own notions of comfort and livability within a city, but also the unintended consequences of the very infrastructures that make urban life possible. As a result, we lose our connection to the element that originated the city and whose functions allowed it to flourish.
Drawing on pivotal texts and dialogues, the body of work is informed by both historical and contemporary perspectives. Histoire d’un ruisseau by geographer Élisée Reclus serves as a primary inspiration, as well as Gaston Bachelard’s L’eau et les Rêves, which informs the introspective dimension, particularly how fleeting and changing encounters with bodies of water reveal insights about ourselves and our environmental relationships, especially in the face of industrialization. These literary influences are complemented by encounters with water rights organizations in France, such as BatoLabo and Les Soulèvements de la terre, lectures by architects on designing for environmental risk zones, as well as through recurring exchanges with eco-anthropologist Léo Mariani of the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, which have been crucial in shaping the theoretical grounding of the works.
The primary materials used throughout the works are those emblematic of construction materials – sheet metal, glass, and concrete – punctuated by charcoal drawings, each chosen for its transformative qualities. Sheets of metal are rusted in an interpretation of data charts of the height of the Seine River over the past twelve months; glass is engraved, allowing erosion itself to reveal the imagery of the islands of the Seine, both of those that have disappeared and of those still present; concrete captures the traces of time passing; charcoal embodies a transformation from raw natural substance to a drawing tool, used to study images of the city pared down to light and shadow.
Light and sound further extend the work’s dialogue with perception and environment. Light is introduced as a dramaturgical device to evoke the subtle shifts that normally remain silently observed. The rhythm of the commissioned sound piece by Augustin Braud and Fabien Enger submerges the viewer into a sound bath, using a mixture of sound captures of materials used within the works, modular synth, and jazz trumpet, while the shadows cast by the glass engraving are joined by those of the viewer. As these shifting reflections and shadows unfold, the work invites viewers to reflect on the fragile balance between control and change that defines our relationship with the river. How much longer can we sustain rigidity before we must embrace instability ?
Drawing on pivotal texts and dialogues, the body of work is informed by both historical and contemporary perspectives. Histoire d’un ruisseau by geographer Élisée Reclus serves as a primary inspiration, as well as Gaston Bachelard’s L’eau et les Rêves, which informs the introspective dimension, particularly how fleeting and changing encounters with bodies of water reveal insights about ourselves and our environmental relationships, especially in the face of industrialization. These literary influences are complemented by encounters with water rights organizations in France, such as BatoLabo and Les Soulèvements de la terre, lectures by architects on designing for environmental risk zones, as well as through recurring exchanges with eco-anthropologist Léo Mariani of the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, which have been crucial in shaping the theoretical grounding of the works.
The primary materials used throughout the works are those emblematic of construction materials – sheet metal, glass, and concrete – punctuated by charcoal drawings, each chosen for its transformative qualities. Sheets of metal are rusted in an interpretation of data charts of the height of the Seine River over the past twelve months; glass is engraved, allowing erosion itself to reveal the imagery of the islands of the Seine, both of those that have disappeared and of those still present; concrete captures the traces of time passing; charcoal embodies a transformation from raw natural substance to a drawing tool, used to study images of the city pared down to light and shadow.
Light and sound further extend the work’s dialogue with perception and environment. Light is introduced as a dramaturgical device to evoke the subtle shifts that normally remain silently observed. The rhythm of the commissioned sound piece by Augustin Braud and Fabien Enger submerges the viewer into a sound bath, using a mixture of sound captures of materials used within the works, modular synth, and jazz trumpet, while the shadows cast by the glass engraving are joined by those of the viewer. As these shifting reflections and shadows unfold, the work invites viewers to reflect on the fragile balance between control and change that defines our relationship with the river. How much longer can we sustain rigidity before we must embrace instability ?