ARTIST CATHERINE GRASSER
Catherine Grasser
Gold leaf, white porcelain, voodoo codes and Buddhist symbols: an artist whose work unifies cultures the way light unifies a room.
Le Mépris by Godard✶the sun✶sand sliding between fingers✶straw weavers✶the perfume of books✶Anja Rubik✶St Barth✶the white✶voodoo✶Sicilia✶hedonism✶skin tanned by the sun✶Serge Gainsbourg✶delicacy✶Jacquemus✶barefoot in wet grass✶Tulum✶nomadic✶Coppola's Godfather✶Kate Moss✶Vaccarello for YSL✶marble✶Santorini✶Jane Birkin✶falling asleep in the sun✶Scorsese✶old floors✶to touch✶Tarantino✶to taste✶to feel✶white magic✶purity✶the swimming pool of Jacques Deray✶Frank Rocholl✶sensuality✶palm trees✶Africa✶Henrik Purienne✶the union of cultures
Our last artist interview of 2020. After all the chaos and uncertainty of that year, it felt right to end with an artist we love for purity and calm.
Catherine Grasser works in white and gold the way other artists work in noise. Canvases painted, embroidered, gilded in 23 carat loose leaf, nailed, torn. Porcelain worked matte like biscuit, until it becomes a talisman. Her materials are humble, rope, cotton, brass nails, and her ambitions are not: each work carries the energy and symbols of several cultures at once, Buddhist symbolism threaded through voodoo codes, white magic and scarification, nature and man becoming one.
Revisiting this conversation now, with the new details she has shared about her formation and her dreams, the calm has only deepened. This is an artist who told us, in the middle of a pandemic, that she comes from a family of resistance fighters and was taught never to give up.
Leila
It was her self-taught grandfather who first taught her to draw. From the age of 14 she studied visual arts in Liège, entering the painting atelier of the Institut Saint-Luc, and staying on to train as a restorer of works of art, specializing in glass and ceramics. That is where she learned to work with gold leaf. She loved the technique immediately, but had no desire to practice it copying the old. She wanted to make it her own.
The language she works in today has been building for years, a mixing of everything she learned. Objects, sculptures, canvases on stretchers: the choice of different supports lets her break the codes and reinterpret the material, never limiting herself to one medium, always in exploration.
Her first work was the grand table Links, made in collaboration with an ironworker, and its name announced the whole project: connection. Today she works on the theme of rites, jewels, and talismans, paying homage to the white magic of the cultures she loves, where the vegetal world runs through everything, part of the soul of Buddhism and voodoo practice alike.
Tell us a bit about yourself.
I started my visual arts studies at the age of 14, in Liège, Belgium, where I currently live. I turned to painting, then restoration of works of art, specializing in glass and ceramics. This is where I learned the gold leaf technique. I liked it straight away and wanted to make it my own and use it my way. I want to convey a feeling, a very positive feeling. All of these experiences allow me not to limit myself to one material, and thus to always be in exploration, in discovery.
Your greatest inspirations or influences?
My inspirations are above all cultural. I love to learn all the time, and that happens when you open up to others. It is the greatest wealth that mankind can possess. Africa, India, the Caribbean are all common sources of inspiration. It goes through ways of thinking, beliefs, art.
An unforgettable meeting took place in Saint-Barthélemy, with a lady, a straw weaver. Her age was matched by life experiences, and a simplicity of human relations. She told me about the island, about her youth, and about learning her craft. This exchange had a profound impact on me and I will always thank her for it. Truly a serendipitous encounter.
Tell us a bit about your creative process.
My work is meant to unify, to unite. Africa, India, the Caribbean: each work contains energy, symbols of different cultures. Buddhist symbolism mixed with voodoo codes. White magic and scarification become sources of inspiration; nature and man become one. The canvases are painted, embroidered, gilded in 23 carat loose leaves, nailed, torn.
I like minimalism, purity, and the simplicity of materials such as ropes, cottons, brass nails. The porcelain is worked like a biscuit, a matte white, reminiscent of the porosity of marble or chalk. It becomes a talisman, a ritual object. I attach great importance to the tactile side. I like to touch, it's stronger than me. I like the textures.
How has this year changed your creativity, and how do you see the evolution of the art industry?
This year necessarily changed all the exhibition projects, workshops, and so on. It felt like the artistic world was being silenced, stripped of its power to communicate. But I will remember that it allowed me to refocus, both in the private and artistic spheres. To experience the impermanence of things, and to open my perception toward a more serene evolution.
I come from a family of resistance fighters, and I was taught not to give up. I kept going and looked at the positive in each day, to bounce back, so I am ready to always move forward. As for the art industry, I hope it will keep a human scale, where people meet and chat freely in front of a work.
Anything else you would like to share?
We reclaim our freedoms. Let's be free to love, to think, and to travel in order to meet each other.
"Grand luxury does not attract me. I just need a hut in the sun and a space to create, feet in the sand."Catherine Grasser · on what she wants from this life
"To live solely from my creations while going to meet artisans on the other side of the world. I dream of going to Bali to discover the weaving of rattan and bamboo. It was the island of Saint-Barth that inspired my first collection."The Dream · in her words
About Antakly Projects
Antakly Projects has been in conversation with artists and creatives from around the world since 2003. Explore the full archive →
And for the personal rants, opinions you didn't ask for, and the occasional existential spiral: follow me on Substack
Follow us on @antakly.projects (instagram) ✶ Stay curious.
