BESTIOLES

The restless counterparts of Pélassy’s silent "Créatures", his "Bestioles" (Bugs, 1994 for the wigs; 2001-2002 for the other works) squeal and sing. Fashioned from cheap toys, these works raised the question of their durability from the moment they were put together. In May 2001, Pélassy wrote, “Since 1993, part of my work has taken shape around the creation of an animated bestiary, which I am building from mechanical toys. Once they’ve been dismembered, these automata are ‘dressed’ with a range of materials that vary greatly and are sometimes costly. This material is always combined with recycled materials or other less noble elements, in search of a certain ‘impropriety’. The use of precious materials and other less common ones enables me to play on broad registers, from derision to seduction to the tragic, from magic to ridicule, from the noble to the trivial… The basic structure is also important. That is, the ‘automata’ conjure up the modes that brought them to life (characters from films and animated cartoons, types of music) in a kind of snapshot of Western ‘culture’ as viewed through the filter of Asia (made in China, Taiwan, etc.). My transformation work aims to magnify, occasionally with humor, these toys whose economy of production is a token of an exclusively mercantile process.”


Untitled
1998
Cigarette paper, plastic, glue, toy mechanism with sound, batteries
16 x 18 x 10.5 cm

Untitled
1994
Ash blonde wig, plastic, toy mechanism, batteries
40 x 30 x 22 cm

Untitled
2002
Red fox fur, beige leather, metal, plastic, toy mechanism
12.5 x 36 x 14 cm

Untitled
2001
Artificial flowers, plastic, sound toy mechanism, batteries
28 x 21 x 15 cm

Untitled
2001
Raphia, metal, plastic, sound toy mechanism, batteries
30 x 27 x 25 cm

Untitled
2001
Fur, crystal, metal, sound toy mechanism, batteries
40 x 15 x 15 cm

Untitled
1994
Black wig, plastic, toy mechanism, batteries
30 x 20 x 18 cm

Untitled
1994
Black wig, plastic, toy mechanism, batteries
55 x 30 x 22 cm

Untitled
1997
Rabbit fur, metal, plastic, toy mechanism
11 x 20 x 20 cm

Untitled
2001
Ermine, mink, lace, silicone, plastic, sound toy mechanism, batteries
33 x 23 x 11 cm

Untitled
2001
Crystal, mink, python, glass, toy mechanism with sound, batteries
19 x 10 x 10 cm