Artist Émeric Chantier reimagines people and animals as surreal plant sculptures. Utilizing a combination of faux greenery and real natural elements, he constructs grassy forms that have small twigs and trees sprouting from them. Chantier pays special attention to details like muscle definition and overall proportion, and the results are creations that feel as though they are strange beings from another world—ones that have an uncanny connection to ours.
The inspiration for Chantier’s sculptures came from his desire to imitate nature in a miniature form. “The base of most sculptures are carved resin,” he explains to My Modern Met. “They are then covered with synthetic elements and other nature [such as] flowers or roots that are painted and varnished.” The process is an involved one, and it requires Chantier to forage French hillsides for materials and later use tweezers to place the finishing touches, like tiny petals on a figure’s cheek.
Chantier views his sculptures, which he calls “a fantasized nature,” as a form of three-dimensional illustrations. The figures are intended to convey feelings or encourage questions about how we relate to the Earth. “The work is not meant to be moralistic,” he says, “but challenging, reflexive, and meditative on the intrinsic link that unites the generational history of the Human with Nature.”
Artist Émeric Chantier creates plant sculptures that utilize real twigs and flowers in their construction.
They encourage us to contemplate our connection to the natural world.
