Camille Ménard opens the doors to reflection with colour and derision. Tinged with sarcasm, her work formalises an invitation of the absurd to awaken our critical eye to a consumerist lifestyle.
Referring to the Italian counter-design of the 1960s and 1970s, Camille founded her design studio Angst Design in 2019. Inspired by radical, critical and revolutionary design, she imagines objects that carry meaning. Free to think, free to create.
Far from the rigidity of functionalist design and the elitism of contemporary art, the artist-designer finds her own balance between functionality and conceptuality. His projects Self Esteem Shapers and Fast & Glorious use the concrete language of the object to convey a message. A convict’s ball and chain as a nomadic battery, a fitness machine as a mirror, a set of teeth as a stool. A colourful social satire offering a joyful and playful escape from modern alienation.
Any childhood memories that impact your work?
“There is one thing that really marked me as a child, and which certainly had an impact on my personality and creativity: the colour of the walls in my room were a beautiful lemon yellow. I have the impression that living in this yellow every day has forged my good mood. And this good mood can be felt in the objects I create. They are not depressive objects, they embody a certain joie de vivre.”
What is your relationship to colour?
“I have a preference for pop colours, colours that catch the eye. My objects are not meant to be discreet. I use colour as bait: to attract attention, to better convey my message.”
And despite this good mood, you deal with social issues…
“Yes, on the surface my objects are joyful and playful but never superficial. There is often this confusion between form and content. I think that there is no need to give dramatic weight to the creation in order to propose a deep and intelligent work.”
How do you find this balance between humour and reflection?
“When we contemplate a work of art, we don’t want to take a moral lesson. So humour is a very strong means of communicating ideas without being moralistic. Taking a humorous tone allows me to assume what I dare to criticise, without falling into boredom. In my projects, the humour lies in the situations that the objects will produce when they are used. They create absurd scenes. And the absurdity produced leads to a reflection on our own behaviour.”
What role does design play in this awareness?
“During the preparation of my dissertation, I had found a definition explaining that design is made to give meaning. But if in the domestic environment, all objects are consumed mechanically and mechanically, then there is no more meaning. We fall into forms of social alienation. This is what I wanted to express through my very first project Self esteem shapers and my Pulldown Check-Up Mirror criticizing the ideology of fitness.
“In my design practice, I want to provoke the absurd to bring meaning and wake up the user who has fallen asleep. To propose objects that awaken consciousness, that open the critical eye in a form of emancipation.”
Your first aesthetic shock?
“All my work is inspired by the Italian counter-design of the 60’s and 70’s. I don’t know if it was my first aesthetic shock, but it was strong enough to have an impact on the construction of my approach: the Pratone. It’s a piece that completely reinvents the archetypal sofa. There is no seating structure that would allow the body to present itself properly to the other. It looks like a large piece of grass into which one falls. The posture that the object creates completely overturns bourgeois propriety. More generally, counter-design has shown me that design can be radical, critical and revolutionary. Much more artistic than commercial.”
Why did you choose design as a creative medium?
“In my opinion, design is one of the most concrete art forms. I didn’t go into contemporary art because its concepts seemed too vague to me. I needed to make myself understood, by my parents who have a very scientific eye, but more widely by everyone. I find that design, through its concrete functionality, makes things more accessible. Much more so than contemporary art.”
Yet you define yourself as an artist-designer…
“My work is close to contemporary art, in the importance I bring to the meaning beyond the function. It is the intellectual aspect of the object that brings me closer to art. However, I still remain in a concrete form. There is an objectivity in my objects, there are not a thousand possible interpretations. Whereas in contemporary art, you can pull the thread very far with a free interpretation of the work. And this is where I make a certain criticism of contemporary art, I find it too elitist. My practice is intended to be a little more democratising through these links with design and function.”
What is your opinion on social networks?
“All the alienation inherent in social networks has fed my reflection on new technologies and our way of creating. With this tiring and alienating need for speed. My project Fast & Glorious criticizes this ideology on the figure of the hurried man and his connected objects. To formalise this idea, I have imagined a nomadic battery that is no longer really nomadic, but is made of a ball and chain. The Sedentary Nomadic Battery reflects my very literal and offbeat approach.”
Tell us about your play LUCKY TEETH
“The little LUCKY TEETH table is my recreational project. It was very liberating when I left Self Esteem Shapers. I needed some levity, to have fun without taking myself too seriously, without taking my work too seriously. The title LUCKY TEETH is inspired by the French expression les dents du bonheur. Its literal translation adds a layer of humour to the piece.”
A piece to be found on our shop!
What is your next project about?
“My next project will be about masculine ideology and its impact on heterosexual love relationships. I want to show how gender roles create imbalances in the distribution of the emotional load. The figure of the virile and apathetic man versus the woman, a small emotional being. My project will question this gender alienation that affects both women and men.”
CAMILLE’S MOOD
The book that makes you think?
“To quote a book common to my projects, I would say Le système des objets, Jean Baudrillard. He is a semiologist, he shows how everyday objects are not insignificant. They make man at the same time as man makes them. And echoing my next project, I recommend Reinventing Love by Mona Chollet.”
The work of art that makes you completely contemplative?
“Dhewadi Hadjab’s oversized canvases which are very powerful.”
The film that makes you laugh?
“I saw The Fabelmans in the cinema recently. I found it so touching and bright. It made me feel good! The whole room laughed.”
