Rennes (Ille-et-Vilaine). Are the strange creatures of Naomi Maury (born in 1991) form the vestiges of a post-apocalyptic ossuary? Should the visitor fear these “exoskeletons” evolving at the interstices between plants, animals and minerals? The artist, who readily blurs the contours of his bestiary, is nevertheless keen to inscribe it in a soothing and curative environment: “revolted flowers, hacked steel” (see ill.) Is above all an ode to the care and poetry of the “deviant bodies” marginalized.
If the taste of artists for exoskeletons does not date from yesterday – in 1989 already, in Remote ControlJana Sterbak levied by resting a crinoline in motorized aluminum, ten years before the first experiments of Stelarc around robotic mechanics-, it was rather manifested in the sphere of bodily art, the artists having experienced the extension of the human body through technology. In fact, Naomi Maury detonates in this artistic landscape at the accent cyberpunkshe who is primarily interested in the use of exoskeletons in a medical framework: Exoskeleton #8 (2025) includes the form of a verticizer. Distribution of testimonies of people with disabilities and caregivers, creation of a soothing atmosphere through a soundtrack with the synthesizer, implementation of comfortable benches: the artist succeeds in developing a hospital environment and transmitting his sensitivity to care and disability.
And by a subtle work on the appearance of materials, Naomi Maury manages to demonstrate that these “deviant bodies” are not only medical professionals: they are also organic and sensitive. No need for cartels to understand the artist’s approach, is rare enough to be underlined. It offers a happy marriage between raw materials, surgical materials and more organic forms bringing sweetness to the whole: the frames of its creatures, composed of solid stainless steel stems and welded together, contrast strongly with the various decorative elements which embellish them (and which at the same time demonstrate the extent of the artist’s know-how in terms of sculpture, assembly and weaving). Result from works as amazing as it is moving, always delicate. Among the parts produced by the art center, Exoskeleton #6 (2025) is the one that best illustrates this balance: the spine is covered with a fabric which marries the forms of metal while giving it a more rounded appearance. This cover diffuses the light of a neon tube attached to the stem: the coldness of the steel thus contrasts with the warm tones of the backbone. The two stainless steel tubes that form the rib cage are decorated with a multitude of rings and pendants. Further on, very refined wire -wire weaving resume the form of endangered flowers.
With “revolted flowers, hacked steel”, the center teaches us that, very often, the most successful curation is the one who knows how to be discreet to let the works speak for themselves.
