Les Enfantillages Pittoresques
Laurent Millet
Hardcover
350 pages
$40
In his work as a photographer and visual artist, Laurent Millet can be said to compose the chapters of an imaginary encyclopedia, peopled with objects that he constructs in either a natural setting or in his workshop. His assemblages are hybrids of traditional, scientific and architectural objects, as well as works of artists close to Millet's heart.
How can one define his work? Is it sculpture? Drawing? DIY? Installation art? The artist stages 'poetic machinery' which he then photographs, this final image justifying all of the stages preceding it. In his own way, relying mostly on a certain awkward erudition rather than skill, he attempts to question the images—those he produces, and those, which are latent, waiting to be awakened in the landscape and in the objects. He thus examines their modes of appearance, persistence and practical nature, as well as their uncertain identity.
Les Enfantillages Pittoresques accompanies a major retrospective of the artist's work at at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Angers, France. The monograph contains images of over 200 works, tracing Millet's career from 1997 to 2013.
