That Dainty Drag

EACH AT LESS THAN SIX INCHES LENGTHWISE, Sylvain Levier's Série FT artworks are roughly the size of your average smart phone, not much larger than an adult hand. But what the dainty pieces lack in size, they make up for in craft and visual impact.

Levier's process for the series includes cutting up cardboard pieces to various sizes, and using them as tools for applying black acrylic onto polyester film. Dragging, pushing, and wiping the pigment renders it heavy in some areas, sparse in others, with evidence of pressure change. As with other styles of painting and printing, the tool leaves traces of itself. In this case, the cardboard leaves occasional edge marks.

The painted films are then cut into geometric shapes, and layered atop each other. Série FT has a visual nuance of being both fluid and jagged, with the strong black and white contrast seen across all of Levier's works. Inspired by medical imaging, his art thrives in ambiguity, and often sits on the boundary between the inert and the moving.

Série FT by Sylvain Levier, sylvain.levier.free.fr