CAMILLE ROUZAUD

Carcasse

December 17th 2022 - February 7th 2023

Swivel Saugerties is proud to present Carcasse, a solo exhibition by Camille Rouzaud, on view in the Safe Room from December 17th through February 7th, 2023. Featuring a site-specific installation as well as an array of the artist’s sculptural wall hanging and floor works, the title Carcasse (or “carcass” in English) lends itself to Rouzaud’s savvy assemblage of inanimate, albeit contextually loaded, objects. These objects reference the body, movement, and the end of both of these concepts – the notion of what we retain, and what remains. Born along the Mediterranean in the town of Narbonne, and having since migrated extensively between Spain, Puerto Rico, and later New York, Rouzaud’s practice revolves around things left behind, both the tangible and the abstract.

Camille’s concoctions combine an array of seemingly disparate materials: BMX bike parts, dry wheat burned by the Mediterranean sun, concrete, and shotgun cartridges, each one bound together with an image of young men who have abetted and altered the artist’s essence. Rouzaud’s father, who grew up in Ouagadougou and Bamako, instilled the practice of animism in them at a very young age, which is evident throughout their work. Animism is the belief that all animals, plants, rocks, rivers, weather systems, human handiwork, and perhaps even words possess a life force, and are animated and alive. It can be ascertained that each sculpture represents an “altar,” lending credence to the layered life we live full of failures, experience, and oppression.  

Rouzaud’s stoic, sculptural statements are a metaphor for resilience. They are at once effortless and elaborate, as free from indoctrination as their subjects are; both fragile and seemingly, invincible, as we all are. They are a symbolic means of self-preservation, exploring the impetuousness of adolescence, finding common freedom across nations in a rancor world, amidst continuous catastrophe, economic woes, and gender and racial injustice.

The found objects hold scars, aging, and deterioration, marking the passage of time and tribulations. In this way, they act as a stand-in for the body and the human experience. Carcasse is a subtle suggestion that in the end all that we are, without moments, motility, and memory are simply a sack of bones…so go move your ass around.