Black marble, the world’s purest marble, hasn’t left sculptor Didier Poisson cold: this noble stone has instead given rise to a series of fine, directly carved sculptures. Full, shapely forms draw the eye’s attention and highlight a fanciful world nurtured by sensuality and motherhood. The symbiotic couple is a recurring theme as seen in “A Man, a Woman”, “Couple” and “Fusion”, where distinct silhouettes are entwined to form one figure. But the idea of gestation is also evoked in the sculptures’ curves, like in those of “The Wait”, with a certain softness under the effect of the light reflected in the polished surfaces. The appearance of colour in the succession of black marble forms, like in “Evening Attire”, is startling. By breaking a reassuring repetition, colour acts as a sort of dazzling, dreamlike opening—a visual surprise that requires the onlooker to vary his observational rhythm and react differently. The work titled “Self-control” gives us a glimpse of the effort needed to hold it together: control, made from tension and constraint, is also a contortion of oneself. Here, angles coexist with the fluidity of rounded contours. Though the names that Didier Poisson gives to each of his creations guide us and allow us to understand the artist’s vision (“Free Woman”, “Guardian”, “The Awakening”), these sculptures, which may seem like embodied fragments of a poetic reverie, feed the viewer’s imagination and in turn give him the freedom to dream himself. This artist’s strength and grace of expression will continue to astound and hold us spellbound.
Monica Salvan, Humanities Professor, Doctor of Lanuages, Litteratures and Societies Translation: Catherine Peterson