Obsessed by philosophy, Morgane Tschiember explores the shifts between physics and metaphysics, natural phenomena and the myriad interpretations humans devise to understand themselves. Tschiember describes her new exhibition “I POISONED MYSELF” as a space of contact imbued with a minimal romantic tension, akin to the heat of a fire on skin, burning yet not consuming it. Her work is grounded in a very earthy, physical dimension, placing a constant emphasis on a kind of ongoing bodily engagement with matter, deliberately leaving visible traces of the process and gesture in her pieces, revealing both the production process and the imprint of her own body.

The new series “Skin Poems” consists of seven pieces, each 2 meters long, which form an entire poem when brought together. Each title resonates with the text branded in red-hot iron by Morgane Tschiember onto the skin canvas. The marbled surfaces of the “Skin Poems” evoke intimate, personal references that mirror our own origins. The artist overexposes the energy at the heart of the exhibition. This state signifies the exaltation of two materials meeting, and how this collision reshapes them. This invisible energy leaves traces in its wake. Energy, both in physics and metaphysics, poses the same questions; one can certainly interpret the phrase of philosopher René Descartes (1596-1650) “Sometimes it thunders without lightning. Sometimes there is lightning without thunder,” as a reflection on nature, on thunder, or as a metaphor for life— sometimes there’s turmoil without visible signs, or there’s brilliance without accompanying noise.

The “Skin Poems” naturally integrate into Morgane Tschiember’s universe, in harmony with her famous glass sculptures, the “Dust devil.” Emblematic of Tschiember’s work, the “Dust devil”, formed from an apparently incompatible mixture of glass and dust, are pushed to the brink of fracture, speckled with shards. They retain from Marcel Duchamp’s (1887-1968) “The Large Glass” the quality of fine or elemental particles, considered waste by some but elevated by the artist to a disruptive and imperative material.

In a minimalist spirit, bridging art and design, the artist has created benches and stools (“Shibari Bench” and “Shibari Stool”) inspired by her residency in Kyoto. Massive oak beams from Burgundy (over 100 years old) are encased in skillfully knotted linen ropes; the wood, notched on the surface, almost closes around the rope. As always for the artist, it’s about achieving great simplicity in form without hiding how things are made, showing how materials come together.

The three windows (“Everybody gets lighter”) revisit one of the great themes of art history, the window, symbolizing an opening to the world while referencing elements of the artist’s personal history. Photos taken by the artist from her Parisian apartment gave birth to this series of hybrid creations, part artworks, part “light sources,” genuine light-artworks. Her windows invite meditation. These gradients of color lead us to the pink hour or other key moments of the day, reminding us that each hour of the day or night is bathed in different light and intensity. These two series of furniture-artworks, Shibari and Everybody gets lighter, were produced by Aurélie Sarallier, director and founder of the Parisian publishing house ColAAb. Finally, akin to taking a casual photograph, the Polaroid is placed there, on the floor, against the wall, as a casual gesture. The photo becomes sculpture through its materiality. The image has not yet appeared, but the light has exposed the bottom of the image. As in each of Morgane Tschiember’s works, the energy manages to pierce even the infinite blackness.