Lise Duclaux (° 1970 Bron France - lives since 1991 in Brussels) "carefully follows life in her own garden: a communal urban garden, surrounded by several blocks of flats in the north of Brussels. She observes the plants and flowers—and more recently also the bees— that grow and reside there, with none or little human interference. She translates her observations into detailed pencil drawings that visualize the interaction of flowers and bees: bees landing on a flower in search of nectar, or sleeping in it.

Though the attractive drawings are quite naturalistic—and their true-to-nature character is enhanced by, for example, a reference to their scale in the margin of the drawing—they serve no scientific purpose. For Duclaux, her drawings are essentially about demonstrating poetic beauty and the appreciation of a non-human, minuscule, authentic life that is usually ignored by us, the viewers. The images relate closely to a series of riso prints of text fragments. The sentences or phrases find their origin in her own notes or thoughts, sometimes in scientific or philosophical treatises. However, in their aesthetic transformation they flirt with the visual language of protest posters and slogans. Duclaux invariably uses the Univers font, which harmonizes particularly well with her world view." Tamara Beheydt, July 2023

Artists: lise duclaux