Subcutanean Ghosts

Paola Siri Renard (1993, FR/BE) is an artist living and working in Paris and Brussels. 

Her sculptural work often refers to art history, architecture and natural processes, like sloughing or fossilisation. The artist isolates sculptural ornaments, which are then rescaled and segmented, and reassembled into new compositions. Stripped from the original context, the elements gain an anachronistic quality, carrying aesthetic codes from varying time periods. Metallic structures like mechanical bones support the ornamental elements. 

Renard’s visual language evokes metamorphosis, bodies disintegrating and morphing into new constellations. Her sculptures unveil and distort formal grids and political structures, subtly influencing spatial arrangements and dynamics of social interactions. Through her physical reappropriation of prevailing architectural forms, Renard's work raises questions about the treatment of heritage, its dissemination, and the exclusionary underpinnings that marginalise specific identities.