Stéphanie Kilgast’s delightful artwork is a kaleidoscopic display of flowers, coral, sea creatures, and fungi appearing to grow out of pieces of trash. The intricate models would be extraordinary on their own, but the way they’ve been placed onto discarded objects, emerging from the trash, gives them a deeper meaning.
It was an exploration of the play between humans and nature that led Kilgast, 37, to create her intriguing sculptures. The latest project features flora and fungi sprouting from the pages of old, discarded books.
The German-born artist, whose mother is French and whose father is Finnish, currently lives in Vannes, France, with her partner and pet cats. Confessing that she can’t remember a time when she “wasn’t creating,” Kilgast says she started by experimenting with all sorts of techniques.
“I certainly wasn’t one of those child prodigies who can draw hyperrealism, and I’ve never been very fixated on a particular medium,“ she told The Epoch Times. ”Up until 16, I was creating things using beads. I did knit, draw, and so on. At 16, I asked for oil paint and did paint with it a bit, but then took a painting course and learned to use acrylics, which became a medium of choice.
“Much later in life, I discovered polymer clay as a sculpting medium, which embarked me on almost a decade of making hyper-realistic miniature food replicas.”
A realization of the environmental impact of human activities prompted a shift in Kilgast’s art practice.
“I like to use trash or discarded objects and imagine nature taking back its rights,” she said. “Living things growing back on the junk we produce and consume.”
The idea for her pieces—which showcase a wide range of biodiversity, including insects—came quite organically.
“I was trying to express my concern about our impact through my work,” she said, “but didn’t quite find how, so I kept creating art until one day I thought of using a can. And that just clicked, it made sense.”
Aside from taking the painting course as a teenager, Kilgast hasn’t formally studied art. Instead, she holds a master’s degree in architecture.
The talented artist’s work has been a great success, with a recent solo show at the Beinart Gallery in Melbourne, Australia, and frequent group showings around the world. Her finished works are masterful, perhaps belying the “very organic and messy process” behind their production.
“There’s a lot of going back and forth, trying colors and then deciding it’s awful and painting everything again,” she said. “I don’t plan any artworks up front, so I just fight with them until I’m happy. It’s a good fun fight though.”
Just as Kilgart doesn’t stick to any set approach, she also intertwines different mediums in each sculpture, depending on her mood and aims. In her own creative way, she loves emphasizing the different elements of nature, which she says are underrepresented, in her art.
“I think it’s important to start seeing the beauty in the small things that surround us, since through ordinary aspects of nature, you learn to love the whole of it and hopefully want to protect it,” she said.
“Things like insects are incredible and beautiful, if you take the time to look at them.”
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