The Learning Curve: Christophe Cornard
Tell us a bit about yourself:
Thanks to a Belgian mother and a French father I was able to integrate early both Romance and Germanic based languages which helped me easily jump into Spanish and English. My polyglot skills opened new horizons for a child spontaneously interested in traveling the world and discover always new places and the people who make them unique. It was Sydney though which I finally called home in 1999, the harbour city calling out for me to build a nest and form enduring and rewarding friendships, at least for now. The future may still hold promises of worlds unknown.
How long have been attending classes at Tom Bass Sculpture Studio School?
I joined Monday and Tuesday evening classes in October 2020.
What do you do when you’re not sculpting?
I have been a hairstylist for the last four decades, another form of sculpting in a way and one that has allowed me travel and pursue other passions.
What made you take up sculpting?
As a kid I loved making things, especially working out logical steps to achieve a 3-D structure. After enrolling for evening classes in sculpture at my local Art Academy in Belgium in 1993, I discovered a brand new world, a world I could no longer leave behind. Ever since I have worked sporadically with different mediums and on different projects. It is only of late that I have grasped why it has always been so important to me: in fact when I mould, sculpt or shape a material, whether it be clay, stone, felt, glass or whichever, I become energetically and emotionally balanced. It gives me the room and the space to feel like me and to be me.
What is your favourite sculpture medium to work in?
Right now I’m still learning and investigating many different media since each new medium pulls me in for different reasons. The only thing I know is that my future body of work will be mixed media, integrating elements of everything I learned. Ultimately it is in synthesis that I find my voice. I’d agree that glass blowing attracts me most but finding a proper studio to work in has proved incredibly challenging.
What inspires your practice?
The process of finding the right balance between negative and positive space, the way light is absorbed or reflected on the materials I choose to use, the manner in which colours and hues interact with those same materials all inspire my sculpture practice. At this stage I seek to push through the boundaries imposed by selected mediums to find my inner voice and develop my very own style. The process itself becomes its own reward and I find satisfaction in a product which, in the end, both reflects my initial concept and simultaneously departs from it, since it never ceases to evolve as I work.
Tell us about what you’re working on currently…
Since I consider every process a learning curve, I’m currently drawing inspiration from Brancusi’s Newborn, admiring and playing with a similarly ovoid shape. Indeed, its deceptive simplicity turns out to be very intricate as both versions appear to be no less than weightless. After nearly 50 hours enjoying the meditative process of sculpting and growing through its every stage, I’m now beginning to achieve some balance in the shape. Thanks to my teacher Christine Crimmins, who has guided me through my mistakes and helped me push past them, simply by showing me alternative ways to approach my subject, I now feel empowered by both my strengths and my weaknesses which I ultimately seek to incorporate in the final piece.
Who are your favourite artists / sculptors?
The artists I most admire are Constantin Brancusi, Ettore Sottsass, Fabio Viale, Grayson Perry, Cornelia Parker, Iris Van Herpen and Wim Botha but let’s not forget the work of Australian artists such as Juz Kitson, Lindy Lee and Juan Ford.