Rebuts industriels hétéroclites et création sculpturale des « caméléonimorphes

Abstract

Unlike ancient African societies where proverbs, ancestral myths and “totemic” beliefs are rich in human figures allied to animal species, postcolonial arts have mostly evolved towards an anthropocentric repertoire (except in Islamized societies). Also, a retrospective on ancient fauna has made it possible to notice that certain reptiles such as the Chameleon, often cited in proverbs, stories and metaphorical expressions, were nevertheless very little represented in pre and postcolonial iconography; hence the title of our subject: “Heterocism of industrial waste and sculptural creation of chameleon morphs”. Like the neologisms consecrated by the ending "morph" in art history, the concept of chameleonimorph" is used here to evoke forms that are more or less similar to the chameleon. It is this relationship of relatedness, largely dependent on the chromatophore effect of the reptile, which guided the project to explore heterogeneous materials, a sort of adaptation, positioning and questioning of art in relation to an environment which mutates with such violence that it threatens the ecology of the chameleon species with disappearance. In fact, the main problem posed by the study is that of knowing: how can the physiological and natural characteristics of the chameleon serve as a conceptual basic in order to experiment and create sculptures of heterogeneous assemblies in industrial scrap? Starting from a biophysiological analysis of the reptile (metamorphy, chromophore, homochromy and homomorphy), followed by an anthropological and semiological interpretation (“messenger”, “metaphor” and “ambivalence”), we have developed concepts as likely to contribute to our experimental and plastic approach as to feed the discourse on the meaning and significance of productions. Finally, the formatting process is based on an analytical and synthetic approach to the creative approaches of certain artists: T. DEINIGER and M.E. CROTEAU working on heteroclism; the law of artistic creation (OLMC) of Engelbert MVENG and the methodology of artistic creation (MCA) of P. KENFACK. On the model of the chameleon which naturally adapts to its biotope, the result of the work is that it is clearly positioned for the recycling of heterogeneous polluting materials in order to better adapt to the new industrial environment. Also, if sculpture was chosen as the main medium for experimenting with “chameleonimorphs”, this does not exclude the adaptability of its codes to other mediums in painting, multimedia or design, such as a model of furniture designed in this study.