Mickaël Doucet

Shao Huo, the latest series by the French painter Mickaël Doucet. This mysterious name has its origins in 19th century Chinese culture, referring to the paper figurines that symbolised the life of the deceased and which were burnt at their funeral. Beyond words, the painter reveals a new universe, just as enigmatic as this title foreshadowed. As usual, Mickaël Doucet offers the viewer pieces of space, subtly evoking here and there questions inherent to the human condition, but the break with his previous series of Villégiatures is well and truly consummated. The painter shows a different aspect of his villas, more intimate and deeper, as if the observer had finally been able to penetrate these smooth spaces. One leaves the large tiled and concrete surfaces of the Villégiatures and their endless perspectives to reach more familiar rooms, in which one finds the artist’s taste for designer furniture. Mickaël Doucet introduces us almost secretly into small spaces; to the bend of a bedroom, an office or a boudoir. The contrast between the enclosed interior space and the immensity of the exterior creates the anxiety of an imminent threat. One no longer focuses on the inside, but rather confronts it with the outside, as a new possibility, an escape… or a breach in the human fortress. The windows still have the same transitory role between two worlds, but their fragility announces the imminent taking over of one over the other. They allow light to filter through, an essential plastic element for the painter’s technique which sets up a play of textures and depths. The Shao Huo evoked in the title of the series are embodied by the presence of origamis that hide in lush vegetation or for some of them have already penetrated the inner world. The curves offered by the vegetation elements disturb the linearity of the interiors. In the same way, the silence and immobility of the interiors seem to be counterbalanced by the untamed exterior and the appearance of origami. The balance is upset, the Shao Huo have entered the interior through the exits deliberately left open by the artist. The Shao Huo can be seen as allegories of violence and death, given inseparable from humanity, and in keeping with their original funerary function. These paper creatures seem to be the bearers of anguishing news of an apocalypse to come. Like emissaries of chaos, origami give all their suggestive power to the canvases and nourish the artist’s narrative. The artist’s narrative becomes more complex and introduces references to a universal mythology. Yet he refuses the idea of a binary opposition between life and death, leaving the observer the right to interpret and question. After all, this could only be a bad dream…