hermes lilian daubisse window display

For French luxury label Hermès, window displays serve as a platform for the brand to champion artists and creatives by giving them an avenue to showcase their work. From now until August 5, shoppers passing by the Hermès boutique at Liat Towers will find a new display by French artist Lilian Daubisse dubbed “Daydream Mirage”. The playful installation uses corrugated cardboard to create fantastical plants that yield a dream-like environment. Below,  Daubisse lets us in on the inspiration behind his work for Hermès.

Tell us more about yourself and your art.

I have always been interested in the artefacts of old civilisations. At the same time, I am also interested in the artistic production of current generations of designers. I regularly visit different museums such as the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris where you can discover fashion and furniture designers. I also visit the Quai Branly Museum for inspiration. I think that my creative style, or how I imagine that it may be seen or interpreted by others, is at the crossroads of different artistic fields. It is interesting for me to be working at the intersection of design, sculpture, fashion, installation and craft art. It’s the best place for me to nurture my creativity.

Why have you chosen to use corrugated cardboard as your primary medium?

I began using corrugated cardboard when I was a student. I originally used this material to make models for artworks that I wanted to create. At some point, I began using the leftover pieces of cardboard to create small objects. My use of cardboard developed from there. Throughout the years, I have been able to explore the use of cardboard and all the possibilities that it offers and have experimented with different techniques. I find the contrast and the paradox of using this industrial material to create handmade art both fascinating and stimulating.

Describe the concept behind Daydream Mirage.

With this installation, I wanted the viewer to be transported to an imaginary world, a world in which the surroundings are transformed during that brief moment before one slumbers into sleep, a moment where reality is altered. The vegetation found in these windows — out of scale with reality, composed of forms and shapes that seem familiar but when combined with the textures and colours veer towards the fantastical — is the hidden side of this imaginary world.

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Tell us more about the creative process behind Daydream Mirage.

At the beginning of a project, I proceed in an intuitive and instinctive fashion. I make an inventory of images, pictures and writing, I visit museums and exhibitions, etc. At some point, the images remain in my mind and become the source that nurtures the subject.

For Daydream Mirage, the inspiration took place during a visit to the Quai Branly Museum in Paris which houses a collection of works from Africa, the Near East, Asia, Oceania and the Americas. It happened while I was contemplating a pointillist painting by an Australian aboriginal artist named Mick Namarari Tjapaltjarri which I had observed many times before: Tijunginpa Mouse Dreaming.

The painting is square, and the entire surface is covered in yellow dots with no apparent pattern or motif — it is at once abstract and mysterious. Like dreams, this painting retains its secrets that can only be unlocked by one who possesses the key and the ability to decipher it.

But even if we don’t possess that key, we can nevertheless form our own interpretation and understanding of the work as we do with dreams. The richness of a work of art lies in its evocative power and its ability to incarnate multiple meanings.

The background of the window installation uses this pointillist technique to evoke the shadows of the vegetation on the walls and floor composed of thousands of yellow dots in the shapes of flowers and stems.

What were some of the challenges you faced with this project?

As with the previous Hermès window projects, one of the challenges I have faced has been to renew and adapt each proposal to the specific place and theme while searching at the same time to retain my artistic identity.

What do you wish for the viewer to feel after viewing Daydream Mirage?

I hope that the window installation will be a source of contemplation for the passerby, allowing them to stop in their busy lives and daydream in front of the imaginary plant life found inside, which echoes the luxuriant vegetation found in Singapore.

Nature presented as a dream is the symbol of continual renewal — the seed turning into the stem, the stem into the flower, and the flower into the fruit. Like Alice stepping through the looking glass, when they gaze through the window, I hope that they will be transported into this imaginary world, where nature has blossomed into new and original forms.

Feature image: Edward Hendricks

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