Hybrids are things that resist categorisation, defy cultural conventions. They question ideas of origin and identity. Different from norms, they intrigue, seduce yet can provoke disgust and fear. In the 1990s Françoise Dupré explored through her work notions of hybridity, otherness and state of alterity.
Glass work. In the early 1990s, began to learn and develop cast glass work. London-based glass artist Angela Twaites became her mentor. Trained in sculpture, working in glass brought nevertheless different technical challenges yet offered Dupré new creative experiences. The practice suited and enriched the artist cross-disciplinary approach – breaking boundaries between fields of making practices.
Left: Young Things, 1998. Detail of wall installation. Commission for Walsall Museum and Art Gallery Me and You group exhibition. Parts of Young Thing are made from a cast of an éphemeras (rolled scouring pad). Cast Glass, rubber, synthetic fur, hair bands, felt, plaster tape and clamps. 0m17 H x 0m24 W x 0m5 D. Photo © FXP Photography, London
Dupré choose glass to make a series of sculptures that explored the fragility of the body. Modelling and casting forms from various organic and made objects – creating hybrids things and fragments that question the idealised human body and its vulnerability.
Right: États d’être (States of Being), 2000. Details of hanging installation for Méssagers de la Terre international exhibition, Rur’Art, Vienne, France, 2000-01. Cast glass, stainless steel cables and fasteners, plaster tape, thread and copper wire.
To read text written by Nancy Proctor for Dupré’s artist page in Méssagers de la Terre exhibition catalogue, click here: Uncanny hybrids.
Left: Clémentine, 2001. Detail of hanging installation for Itinérance, touring exhibition, Hôpital de la Milétrie, Poitiers, France and Galerie Éphémère, Charleroi, Belgium. 2001. Cast glass, stainless steel cable and fasteners, leather and copper wire. 0m08 H x 0m15 W x 0m06 D.
Right: Young Things (2), 1998. Table piece. Cast glass, rubber, felt, hair bands, felt, plaster tape.0m20 H x 0m16 W x 0m04 D
Photo © FXP Photography, London
Left: bonne nuit les petits, 2001. Floor installation. Soft toys, leather, felt. 0m40 H x 0m30 W x 0m13 D.
Right: Twins, 2000. Wall installation. Soft toys, felt, leather, fastener. 0m46 H x 0m15 W X 0m10 D.
Photo © FXP Photography, London
Left: Hybrid (brush), 1997. Wall piece. Washing up brush, synthetic hair, plaster tape, clip. Part of a series of artworks made using everyday domestic objects such a washing up brush and scouring pads. Associated with cleaning, Hybrid (brush) is a comment on our cultural obsession with cleanliness and dirt. The sculpture was exhibited in Somerfield store in Camden as part of the group exhibition Mavis Goes Shopping (1997).
Right: Hybrid, 1999. Wall piece. Washing up brush, wadding, plaster tape, clip.
Photo © FXP Photography, London
Éphemeras was installed for the artist solo exhibition at the Conductors’ Hallway Gallery, London, 1998. The installation consisted of thousands of multicoloured scouring pads, rubber bands and nails. 3m50 H x 24m W x 0m05 D. Photo © FXP Photography, London
Françoise Dupré 