Laëtitia Payombo, Untitled, Mixed technique, 2015-2017
Tools: Canon EOS 40D, Stylet FiftyThree , Ipad Air 2, Illustrator, Creative Cloud, Photoshop
After visual arts studies in the University of Valenciennes, film education in the Sorbonne University and a Master Degree in Film Studies from Paris West University Nanterre, I settled in Martinique, where I had graduated from National Conservatory of Arts and Crafts in Bachelor of Business Administration.
In 2012, I met the North of France visual artist Cedric Joveniaux. We began living and working together that year in Martinique. When we began our collaboration, the main concepts we explored were censorship and reinterpretation. We created works characterized by constant exchange of idea, and the mix of diverse influences and genres. This was the beginning of six years of influential collaborative work. Each of us was interested in freedom of art and creation. Consequently, we decided to form a collective being called “Particules Créatives,” and we were rejoined by Grégory Joveniaux and Rodolphe Taisne.
As we worked together as a collective, our individual identities became less accessible. And each of us was influenced by the work of the others.
Between 2015 and 2018, we created five hundred and forty-three original pieces of artwork. We diffused this work in progress on Particules Créatives website under the name of work of the day. We created abstract work, painting, sculpture, art video, drawing, digital art.
In 2018, after several years of exchange, Cedric and I decided to come back in France which would end our relationship and Particules Créatives. The main problem was that after several years of exchange we were becoming this same voice unable to be ourselves. It was time for us to work alone.
I’m working now on the madness of our apocalyptic world.
Influences: Lars von Trier, George Andrew Romero, Caravaggio, Joseph Beuys, Nobuyoshi Araki, Gregg Araki, Quentin Tarantino, Walt Disney, Fluxus, Expressionism, Pop art, postmodernism
Guiding motto: Abolish the boundary between high art and popular art.
Biographical details
Personal information
Laëtitia Payombo
Fields of work : digital art, painting, collage, drawing, mixed media, video, installation art, performance, photography
Spoken and written languages : French, English, German
Fields of work : digital art, painting, collage, drawing, mixed media, video, installation art, performance, photography
Spoken and written languages : French, English, German
Education
2010, Master Degree in Film Studies, Paris West University Nanterre, Nanterre, France
2008, Master Degree in Film Studies, the New Sorbonne University, Paris, France
2007, Master Class in Film Studies, Pantheon Sorbonne University, Paris, France
2006, Master Degree in Multimedia and Visual Arts, Valenciennes University, Valenciennes, France
Distribution of works
February 21th, 2015, The Yards DC, Laser Cat, Washington, DC, United-States
November 20th, 2014, Manhattan Bridge, Laser Cat DUMBO, New-York, United-States
June 5th, 2014, Laser Cat, Barcelona, Spain
April 9th, 2014, Laser Cat, Miami, United-States
March 7th, 2014, See me, New-York, United-States
December 3rd -8th, 2013, Miami Beach Scope, See me, Miami, United-States
October 5th, 2013, Linc LIC Building, See me, New-York, United-States
October 2006, Centre Georges Pompidou, the Pocket film festival, Paris, France
Artistic Process
Everything begins with Plato’s allegory of the cave, and this impression that everything around us is a sham. I seek through art an invisible world: the hereafter, the fairyland, death….
Black woman in a western world I have the face of the enemy. I'm the migrant, the poor, the useless, the garbage. I attempt to express my emotion about our contemporary world and his history. Because the world becomes more and more like a nightmare in a science fiction world, I try to find a voice to express the deep anger and frustration of a citizen without a voice. Death, frustration, madness and anger are my subject. My point of view is committed, social, but above all formalist.
My inspiration comes from everyday life, filtered through the prism of horror, fairytales, Greco-roman mythology, the Bible, Japanese comics, the Italian Renaissance and German Expressionism.
My work thrives on borrowing and reinterpretation; I regard it as postmodern.
My work could be considered to lie within the genre of pop art - almost kitsch in style - which attempts to raise pop art by half and lower high art by half. Indeed my work alludes to both Renaissance and pop art.
My quest is to grasp the unspeakable. My aesthetic preoccupation is the same. What hides the medium? How far can we go? Can it be mixed with other media?
The subject of my work is « what is hidden beyond the mirror? »
My major theme is death. Contemporary Western society attempts to deny death. Everything related to death is erased, such as old age, disease, discomfort, and distress. Prescriptive happiness imprisons society in a mirage. Death is an indicator. However, ultimately this fantasy cannot withstand the reality of its extinction in death. The principal elements of death that I study are loss/extinction, loneliness, sense of abandonment, distress, terror.
My feeling about death is that it should reclaim its place at the heart of life. The interaction between death and life would open the door to another reality, far from illusion, the essence of being.