Waste side story
The philosophy behind Les Créations Messagères
A METAPHORICAL PARADISE
Artist’s studio or sensory garden?
William Amor has kept his childhood passion for flowers and trees close to his heart, and in his work he reimagines nature – not to imitate it, but rather to emphasise how extraordinary it is, and pay tribute to its beauty. Everything that has ended up as a reject of the manufacturing industry, he grows in his extraordinary garden, a kind of studio-cum-laboratory in the Villa du Lavoir, nestled behind the Porte Saint Martin in Paris, where plastic bags and bottles transform into petals, fishing nets into stamens and stigmas, and cigarette stubs collected from pavements into colourful reefs of marquetry. From dyeing and découpage to pen-and-ink drawing and jewellers’ pliers, the artist's imagination is unleashed in the name of nature, which he is dedicated and committed to working to protect and celebrate.
My artistic vision and creative process are the result of my experience of living in Paris. I wanted to bring an element of poetry to the everyday, by transforming our litter, which is left to trail through the streets of the city, into unique pieces that convey meaning and represent certain values
(Extract from an interview with L. Benaim)
INSPIRED WORKS; COMMISSIONED WORKS
How does a ‘création messagère’ come into being?
Whether it's a large-scale art installation or dreamscape, a sculpture, custom-made piece, decoration or unique piece of jewellery, William Amor’s designs are the result of a meeting, a request, or of the artist being given carte blanche, which gives free rein to his artistic expression. At the beginning of the creative process, the idea and the artistic inspiration will start to take shape through a sketch. This is followed by a phase of experimental research to explore waste items and scraps that have been given into the artist’s care, which he has gathered and collected over the years and which have been sorted and stored away...
Waste Side Story
Seeds of meaning
‘Waste’ is a term invented by mankind. This concept does not exist in Nature, because everything in Nature is a resource. The artist takes this premise as his starting point, and takes inspiration from all the materials he encounters, whether they are of human or natural origin... His artistic signature is to turn the products of our consumerist society, which have been deemed to have no value and which are harmful to the environment – namely plastic waste that causes pollution – into objects of beauty.
MEANINGFUL ENCOUNTERS
A human dimension
There is also an element of humanism at the centre of William Amor’s artistic approach. In his studio, the artist surrounds himself with a team of people he has met along his artistic journey, to whom he passes on his artistic sensibility and skills, in order to successfully create his Créations Messagères.
