CHIMENÉE (CHIMENEY)
Chimenée (Chimney)
1996 Temporary intervention on the rooftop of the Reims School of Art Butter,
concrete, birds Black and white photographs, 180 × 110 cm + 160 x 240 cm
The chimney was built using butter bricks and fresh cement. The butter bricks were eaten by birds, leaving only the lacework of the concrete joints visible.
Cheminée presents two black and white prints of a chimney built from butter bricks and fresh cement on the rooftop of the Reims School of Art.
Photographed once the birds had done their work, the image holds both states of matter in suspense. What was constructed to resemble permanent architecture was always
destined to disappear: the butter pecked away joint by joint, until only the lacework of the concrete remains — the skeleton of a building that never quite existed.
The photograph fixes what matter could not hold.
