What's left over?

Un vrai bonhomme (2023; Engl. “A proper man”) is the title of a work on canvas measuring 200 × 140 cm, created last year during Émilie Picard’s residency at Künstlerhaus Bethanien. The motif is a painted figure made of wood, reminiscent of a scarecrow, and does not match our idea of a vrai bonhomme at all: it remains somewhat perplexing. The image presents as a section from a much larger scene, and it also utilizes humour in that context, breaking ironically with the classic still life work. The items depicted are not carefully arranged and positioned according to aesthetic value, as is customary in the still life tradition; they are stacked and piled up. Indeed, the objects fail to make sense in conjunction: two yellow gloves protrude into the painting, and a billy-goat mask hangs above them, while white power cables and wooden garden tools seem to interact. It looks as if the individual objects have been assembled at random; forgotten objects and leftovers from an event now past.
Les restes (2021–ongoing; Engl. “The leftover”) is the title Picard has given to a series of works on paper visualizing the production process of her paintings. Le reste are painted strips of adhesive tape that have been brought together on white paper to create an autonomous, abstract composition. The strips are leftovers from her painting and taping. On the canvas, the omissions become visible as white gaps or tears, which Picard deliberately removes during the creative process but does not throw away, archiving and sorting them instead. Émilie Picard is an attentive observer who records traces, creates new ones, and, with a twinkle in her eye, confronts her viewers with the unexpected, engaging them in that way.