Lucie Van der Elst
Lucie Van der Elst (b. 1987, Paris, France, she/her/hers) is a multidisciplinary artist, miniaturist and illustrator. She studied applied arts and product design in Estienne and École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, where she graduated in 2010. A post-graduation solo backpacking trip through the United States ended up changing her life in unexpected ways. She moved to Chicago in 2016 and has called the city her home ever since.
Since November of 2021 she is part of Itty Bitty Mini (m)art, a studio of multi-faceted miniaturists with a serious sense of humor.
Lucie’s art practice involves paper cutting, digital art and making miniatures. But drawing has been her main visual language for decades.
Through repetition of organic motifs, she patiently builds universes of ambiguous scale. Are they monumental or microscopic? It is often up to the viewer to decide.
Rarely does the human form take center stage in these landscapes. It’s suggested that they might have been here – perhaps recently, or thousands of years ago. Either way, they are neither the dominant life-form nor the primary subject. Instead, the attention falls upon the environment. Look closely: it’s calm, but the landscape feels sentient.
While some works touch on heavy subjects like grief in the face of environmental catastrophe, other works celebrate life and connection. The driving forces here are compassion, curiosity and care for that what is seen as “other”, transforming the Freudian concept of “disturbing strangeness” (inquiétante étrangeté) into a feeling of wonder, comforting yet otherworldly.
About my drawing “Eons”: Eons means “a very long time”. In this drawing I wanted the viewer to enter a space that feels like it’s been slowly degrading, for an unknown period of time.
Abstract elements, with shapes reminiscent of the ropes and sails of battle ships or merchant ships, seems to have been abandoned for quite some time. Structures collapse. The wind has gone from the sails. There’s a chaotic stillness. An absurd gridlock.
Is a standstill considered “peace”?
Since the very beginning of humanity, the “peace” making process always comes with strings attached.
“Eons”, drawing (30x40cm)
