Nadège David, “Soi-même se mangea 2”
Acrylic paint and ink on paper
2020
39.5x42cm
(unframed)
Although drawing has always been part of Nadège David´s journey, it became a necessity during her studies in Social Sciences. In the course of her quest to step beyond the conceptual limits of traditional Western philosophy, she realized that words alone were not enough. A deep dive into the possibilities of visual language followed and drawing established itself as an essential medium for Nadège to apprehend the world.
The in-depth study of Hannah Arendt´s writings was a great source of inspiration and reflection for Nadège who initially strove to transcribe the forms of individual trajectories´ records. This resulted in a shift of focus away from the representation of the body in order to reflect biological processes based on a sensorial experience.
This sensorial feeling is still expressed today in her half-abstract drawings and paintings where the body – or its parts – is so smoothly blending with its environment that it becomes barely recognizable.
As the artist states, “Each drawing is a dialogue in which an element of will and uncertainty, accident and unpredictability unfolds; the desire to tell a story, to represent a form of life, then to release it into an environment where it will unfold or hide… depending on the medium used. Water and its mutability play an important role in this dialogue. Indian ink, watercolor, acrylic are therefore my favorite mediums for telling stories of metamorphosis, fusion, resistance.”
Born in 1975 in France, Nadège David received an MA in Political Philosophy at Sorbonne University in Paris and an MA in Contemporary Political Philosophy at University Paris VIII. She was a lecturer in Sociology at University Marne-la-Vallee (France) between 2001 and 2005.
Her work has been exhibited in Vietnam and Singapore.
