A filmed Interview with myTHself 'Au Monstre D'Isigny' October 2022. by Local YouTube Film maker Jean-Francois Perron

I met Jean-Francois Perron whilst painting on the street next to a bakers in Isigny-sur-mer.  I'd been asked if I could paint that particular location so the picture could be a surprise birthday present.  It was the second of two 'birthday surprise' commissions in my 'capturing' Isigny series of paintings. JF was buying bread but had heard about me from a painter living in Isigny.

We arranged to meet that afternoon in my 'Au monstre D'isigny' space.  After we had talked he decided he would like to return and film an interview the next week.

Jean-Francois posted the hour long interview, which was in French, unedited, to his YouTube channel in 3 parts soon after. 

 

La Bataille D'Isigny Part 4 : After 3 Missions.

It's been more than four months since I was last in Isigny-Sur-Mer. This last time was my third operation in the town. It was by invitation and my hotel and travel expenses were paid for ().  The occasion was 'Le 5eme International Festival de la BD d’Isigny-sur-Mer' (BD = graphic novel).  I was given a corner of the municipal exhibition hall right next door to the town hall and Disney museum.  The invitation to exhibit, was for me, a public confirmation of the work I'd being doing over the summer in the town (the invitation was made by the president and founder of the association for the BD festival who is a writer, journalist and part owner of the building I rented... ... ...)

 

I worked out of the highstreet centre of operations 'Au Monstre D'Isigny' for 5 months.  I painted in the street.  I painted in the town market. And I painted every day behind the window of the high-street shop I'd rented for anyone to see.  I welcomed passers-by into my space, giving explanation to the pictures and the myth imperative that had me installed there.  I was able to present and discuss with anyone the themes my installation provoked and invoked. 

There is an idea 'art picture' art must stand alone and be capable of meaning without the artists presence.  That's OK, but can limit the pictures conversation to an art savvy public.  I've always wanted my pictures to reach a popular public like my family and the people I come from and live amongst.  When I present my work in person as I have done in public facing studios these last two summers I know and feel the works effect.  

My first mission In Isigny was shooting the guerrilla film 'LBDI : 'l'allumage les bittes d'amarrage'.  That was always envisaged as a kind of commando raid on the Disney megacorp planned and amplified because of the town's promoted association with Walt Disney ancestry.  

On the third afternoon filming in Isigny, shooting the movies finale I was dressed for mythic battle as myTHself Trinity.  Man-Camera-Martain and I had become familiar with neighbouring locals who'd mused at our antics on previous occasions.  90 mins in to the shoot we were stopped abruptly by order of Gendarmerie called out by a hairdresser who'd been alarmed by a scene he didn't understand from further up the highstreet. The police insisted we pack up and leave town.

Following this incident I felt I needed another different and better interaction with Isigny-Sur-Mer which had become a bigger part in my story.  

How should I 'meet' the town better?  

I began (post covid January 2022) with a formal appointment to meet the mayor and introduce myTHself.  I showed and explained my pictures and why one of my projects had become specific to his town.  In February and March I viewed potential properties for a base of operations in the town. I initially thought to return to the location of the film in the East of the town by the bridge. But then I saw a suitable property on a wide place at the Western end of the high-street opposite a church, the church of St.George, St.George who fought the dragon.  

I hadn't known the main stone towered church of the town was St. George's but St.George's symbol was already a significant part of 'myTHself Trinity' identity.  The structure for his map wings emblazoned across my back was a red cross.  The poetry of coincidence is sign to story for myTHself.

AU MONSTRE D'ISIGNY vf

Au Monstre d'Isigny (le texte affiché dans la fenêtre).

Toi et moi, trouvons myTHself à Isigny dans le cadre d'une étrange odyssée. Je pensais que je faisais des images, mais il se pourrait que ce soit elles qui me fassent. Enfant, j'aimais m'évader en dessinant des images de batailles et de soldats. Ils restent dominants dans mes images. En 2008, j'ai peint une armée de soldats en papier... J'ai prétendu être chacun d'entre eux dans mon jardin : une bêche pour un fusil, une poubelle pour un cheval. Je leur ai imaginé une entreprise et finalement, en employant une usine à Chatillon-sur-Seine, j'ai fabriqué une armée qui pouvait jouer à la bataille sur les sols du monde entier... oh, mais bien sûr, cet espace a été pris... depuis Star Wars, le lien entre les jouets en plastique, et les films et la télévision est solide. Le pouvoir du cinéma et de la télévision de propulser les jouets dans le monde entier est impressionnant. Mais si les petits soldats sont bons à quelque chose, c'est à faire semblant de jouer à la bataille...

Lorsque j'ai commencé ma guerre ludique contre les jouets en plastique, plusieurs grands producteurs de films fabriquaient des jouets d'action : Les super-héros Marvel, Pixar et Lucas Art, mais une société a racheté ces trois grands studios.

Un jour, en conduisant à Cherbourg, j'ai entendu sur France Bleu l'histoire de Hugues Suhard, ou Hugues d'Isigny, un soldat de la conquête normande de l'Angleterre, et j'ai découvert le lien entre Isigny-sur-Mer et la société multi-méga média que son descendant avait fondé.

Pendant trois week-ends en 2018, j'ai réalisé un petit film guérilla autour du quai d'Isigny rappelant cette histoire... mais je me sentais mal à l'aise de mettre en scène Isigny en tant que figurant sans présenter mon travail à la ville. Alors covid. En janvier 2022 j'ai eu un rendez-vous avec le maire pour présenter mon projet et le 14 juin j'ai signé une convention pour louer ce local. L'été dernier je me suis arrangé pour travailler en public pour la première fois sur un grand tableau près de ma résidence (voir article Ouest France ci-dessous).

Faire des images dans un studio mansardé est très différent de faire des images dans la rue ; je ne l'ai jamais fait auparavant... c'est une expérience... Il se peut que je commette des erreurs - veuillez me pardonner. J'espère que faire des images en public les rendra meilleures, avec votre aide. Je ne suis pas payé pour être ici. Je n'ai aucun financement pour l'art. Je gagne ma vie en travaillant sur des chantiers et dans la maison que j'ai construite et que je loue près de Flamanville. Je ne fais pas ça pour le plaisir. Je le fais pour le sens.

Je crois en l'art, mais je ne suis pas sûr qu'il existe. Je suis originaire du nord-est de l'Angleterre, fils d'un mineur de charbon. Je n'ai jamais rencontré l'art avant de quitter la maison pour l'université à 18 ans. Si l'art existe, ce n'est pas la politique, les affaires ou la religion, mais une réflexion poétique. Si je fais de l'art, j'espère qu'il est éclairant, puissant, humoristique et significatif, peut-être même beau. J'espère pouvoir améliorer mon art ici, dans cette rue principale. High Street Art.

AU MONSTRE D'ISIGNY (La Bataille D'Isigny : Part 3)

I'm half way through my high-street shop occupation-studio-installation-headquarters-forward operating-base-residency in Isigny-Sur-Mer, 'Au Monstre D'Isigny'.

This is the text explanation of the project inside the window:

You and I find myTHself in Isigny as part of a strange odyssey. I used to think I make pictures, but it might be they make me. As a child I loved to escape into drawing pictures of battles and soldiers. They remain dominant in my pictures. In 2008 I painted an army of paper soldiers... I pretended to be each one of them in my garden a spade for gun, a dustbin for a horse. I imagined them a business and eventually, employing a factory in Chatillon-sur-Seine made an army that could play battle on floors around the world... oh, but of course this space was taken… since Star Wars the link between plastic toys and movies and tv has been solid. The power of cinema and TV to propel toys around the world is awesome. But if toy soldiers are good at anything it's pretend play battle...

When I began my play war with the plastic toys there were several large movie producers making action toys: Marvel superheroes, Pixar and Lucas Art but one company went on to buy out all three of those major studios.

One day driving in Cherbourg I heard on France Bleu the story of Hugues Suhard, or Hugues d'Isigny, a soldier in the Norman conquest of England, and discovered the link between Isigny and the multi mega media corporation his descendent had founded.

Over three weekends in 2018 I made a short guerrilla film around the quay in Isigny recalling this story... but I felt uncomfortable featuring Isigny as an extra without presenting my work to the town. Then covid. In January 2022 I had a meeting with the mayor introducing my project and on June 14th signed an agreement to rent this shop... Last summer I arranged to work in public for the first time on a large painting about and near where I live (see Ouest France article below).

Making pictures in an attic studio is very different to making pictures on a high street; I've never done it before... it’s an experiment... I may make mistakes - please forgive me. I hope making pictures in public will make them better, with your help. I'm not paid to be here. I have no art funding. I make my money working on building sites and from the house I built and rent out near Flamanville. I don't do this for fun. I do it for meaning.

I hope and believe in art, but I still can't be sure it exists. I'm originally from the northeast of England, the son of a coal miner. I never encountered 'art' until I left home for university at 18. If art exists, it is not politics, business or religion but a poetic reflection. If I am making art, I hope that it is enlightening, powerful, humorous, and meaningful, perhaps even beautiful. I hope I can make this art better here, in this high street. High Street Art.

Beneath the texts are QR links to three short films... 

I've also chopped together this short (2min) film as a video glimpse and promo short from footage taken over the first two months in Isigny.

Prompted by a mild sunny morning in December 2021 I'd been regularly making landscape paintings 'en plein air'.  I decided this could be my base painting activity in Isigny-Sur-Mer.  Painting the town - capturing the town in paint would get me working out on the street an express tactic to help me engage the towns folk with my pictures.  Painting on the streets has me vulnerable and approachable.  It also lands anyone passing a valid critical position over my actual picture making activity. 

I began painting on the Isigny streets early in the morning.  I paint on my knees, it enables me to work with a straight back.  The church accidently became the first object my paintings revolved around.  Whilst making the second painting an old lady joked that I seemed to be saying my prayers in the street... before the church... hmmm.  Her comment was on point. Cars were also unavoidably omnipresent in the paintings.  The town reflected in their shiny, curvaceous, desirous forms.   Later the milk factory and the bridge also became two other reference points in choosing painting locations. 

After finishing the paintings I put them in the gallery window for sale.   I usually take between 2 and 3 hours to make a painting.  I wanted to price them so almost anyone could stretch to afford one.  I settled on 80€ as the price.  I've only sold one so far although another three as 'reserved'.

The other main picture painting activity I've now completed.  It was the large painted panel for the shop front.  It reads (not too easily) 'Au Monstre D'Isigny.  I came up with the title with the help of friends... cos I was beginning to feel more than a little monstrous myTHself in my operations against the beast...

La bataille D'Isigny. Part 2. Filming.

In late September 2019 ManCameraMartain, LauraCameraWife and I arrived in Isigny-Sur-Mer.  Our mission was to shoot footage for a film.  A no-budget guerrilla operation beginning at the Eastern edge of town near the gates of the huge Dairy factory.  Using Google Earth I'd pre-selected the first camera set-up.  We improvised the rest of the shots as opportunity presented whilst I performed the simple story board I'd made over the summer.

Dashing about the quai in a business suit attracted the attention of locals and we had some fun banter whilst explaining we were making a short film concerning the town and it's relation to the Disney Corporation.  After a long afternoon filming we returned home and I began to arrange the footage to see what had been captured and what other footage we would need to complete the film.

 

ManCameraMartain and I returned the following week with a tight list of scenes to capture.  We decided to shoot these on a Saturday afternoon - a relaxed,  non sacred leisurely time of the week.  This mission must capture myTHself transformed from suited business man to myTHself Trinity fantastic warrior angel on the main bridge over the sea canal.