When I walked into Thierry Drefus’ aged mirrors firmly planted on the wooden floors of the Invisible Dog – it was during the opening of (naked) absence – (blinding) presence, which also coincided with their holiday dinner party back in December. The entire space being spliced by these large reflections, instantly drew me to knowing who was the artist behind the installation. Eiji Sumi soon joined the party, and over a bowl of homemade cocktail, the artist Thierry Dreyfus introduced himself and advised us to see his other piece in the back of the gallery. Walking through the door, the room opened up to something of a lucid dream. The diffused light changed the dimensions of the air, and without knowing what to expect, I became in sync with the heartbeat that was intensely thumping in the background. Peaking in and out of the white shadows is a godly figurative sculpture. Then, hearing muffled voices from other human figures, the magic spell was broken. A few weeks later, after the artist returned to Paris, I decided to investigate Sir Thierry Dreyfus, an internationally renowned and respected artist, through the eyes of a New York based emerging lighting artist, Eiji Sumi. Both artists, living in influential cities, tell their stories using the element of light.
Eiji Sumi: What is it about Light that fascinates you and has made you pursue it as an artistic medium?
Thierry Dreyfus: There exist materials (sound waves, fragrances…) that are not applied and often, don’t settle on any surface – but rather, that find their echo in volumes. Light is one of these materials: it murmurs, holds back or screams – without ever attaining our eardrums. Much as these languages that speak, but whose message we are incapable of decoding although their resonance is instinctively familiar.
My research on light stems from a need to work its matter on diverse supports – like so many writings emanating from one single alphabet: as a flat by capturing an image; as a volume on a private/personal luminous object – or an existing volume when I stand before a monument, a building or a city.
ES: Tell me one of the most vivid episode, accident or story in your previous work?
Last October, some 50,000 people stopped to look up at Notre Dame and discover it as they had never seen it before. Looking at them slowly move around the central aisle and dark corners was like a suspended moment in time, no more gravity.
ES: One of the strengths in using light as a medium is that it can be projected in a grand scale. What are the aspects that you pay special attention to when creating large scale lighting productions?
I always pay attention to human beings and human feelings, putting their dreams and emotions first, to inspire them, and lead them far way from their daily life, into a more poetic scenery. When I twist existing proportions, I am able to create another point of view, leading to poetic sceneries. In the end, they never feel like they have been to the same space, building, or historical monument as before.
ES: The technology that artists use to create and the spaces in which they exhibit their work have probably changed over the past 30 years. How do you think they have changed and how would you like to see them evolve in the future?
Some need to use new technologies as a media, some just use emotion as a media. I belong to the second half. The flicker and warmth of a candlelight hasn’t changed for decades.
ES: There is a sense of climax in your productions, such as the Eiffel Tower piece “Ondes Visibles III” and the “ND1” installation in Hong Kong as well as in your latest piece “(naked) absence – (blinding) presence” at the Invisible Dog. Do you think your earlier experiences in the Opera world had any influence on this?
Maybe, but to be honest, the day-to-day life has much more influence on me since I always try to fight against, and escape, the speed and stress our lives imposes on us. When going to the opera, the audience comes to enjoy a musical/theatrical moment; and during that moment, the guidelines are created by the music scores and annotations of a number of directors, or the composer him/herself. In my work, the only guideline is to offer a vision that people will share. For me references and written formats aren’t guidelines, instincts and pure emotions are.
ES: Do you think that your works and productions have any French influence?
Maybe you can answer, I can’t.
ES: What piques your interest these days?
Cities. And looking at cities with a different point of view at night, lighting them up in a different way one sees them during daytime.
ES: What are some proverbs or words that you keep in mind for inspiration?
« Lights turned off
From the limpid sky a star comes forward
And enters through the window »
– Natsume Sôseki (Haiku)
The light was so intense we had to clear a path through it, as if through
a thicket. – Vassili Grossman
The work of Art operates like a sample,
A questioning close-up.
Make surprising the peaceful, the simple, the understood,
The usual and the best accepted and shared by all.
– Marc-Alain Ouakin
Never ask for directions from someone who knows the way
For then, you couldn’t get lost. – Rabbi Nachman de Braslav
The work lives off the way one looks at it. It is not limited either to what it
is, nor to he who produced it, it is also made by he who beholds it. My
“painting” is a space of questioning and meditation where the meanings
one gives it can come, be made and unmade.
– Pierre Soulages
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(photos courtesy of the Invisible Dog)
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