Hubert Duprat

Born in 1957 in Nérac (FR)
Lives and works in Claret (FR)

Sept tubes de trichoptères

1980-1997
Gold, pearls, precious and semi-precious stones
Largeur : 2 cm, diamètre : 0,5 cm
Year of Purchase: 1997

Hubert Duprat transposes natural and real elements into a strange and powerful imaginary world. With this formal language which is his very own, he makes bushes of coral, marquetry work using precious wood and treetrunks covered in nails. Ideas of shift, displacement and mutation are ubiquitous in these intriguing pieces. Their attraction is caused by the appropriation and comparison of different materials, as well as by a re-interpretation of their meanings. The precious little cases forming Sept tubes de trichoptères (Twelve Caddis-fly cases, 1980-1997) have unexpected origins to say the very least. The artist collects aquatic larvae in fast-flowing stretches of rivers and streams where these creatures – the larvae of caddis flies – fashion a case using various debris to withstand the current. Once the larvae have shed their natural sheath, they are then put into an aquarium whose bottom is covered with gold spangles and tiny precious stones. The insect, once a mason, becomes a jeweller, because the artificial object that is the outcome of its labours becomes both habitat and sculpture. The finery created by the arrangement set up by the artist refers to the idea of the automatic production of an artwork. Duprat nevertheless goes beyond the readymade and broaches the concept of metamorphosis: that of the caterpillar which will become a moth, as well as that of artistic activity and natural objects turned into timeless sculptures.

^{Sophie Richard}