Sylviane Perret

Impermanence is the law and the condition of all kingdoms, human, animal, plant or mineral. We never stop transforming, evolving, mutating. This is the only certainty and perhaps the only reason for our existence. Our technological and consumerist society has changed our perception of time; once perceived slow and continuous, today it is fragmented and frantic; we want to last on the ephemeral. What are the consequences of such a contradiction on our future and on ourselves?

These questions are closely related to my work, and come directly from the material used and the shapes research.

The choice of "wild" clay and mineral harvest takes me back to geological times; clay has its own time, which is not the social time that regulates our daily life. Harvested at an instant T of their physical and chemical "state", minerals continue to transform and recompose over time of fire and the atmosphere of the kiln.

The shapes of my sculptures are related to the mineral that composes them. If matter appears inert to us, it is only a question of timescales. The rocky mountain will turn to dust one day. Our mental inability to grasp the vertigo of evolution, however, allows us to experience the present moment intensely.

Sylviane Perret was born in 1949 in France.
Formation at the Workshop Roger Vigeant in Paris, then at the Centre International de Formation aux Métiers d'Art et de la Ceramique (CNIFOF).
There, she trained in different techniques: the wheel, but also modelling and slab work. From that time on, she chose stoneware, researching glazes and firing in a gas kiln. She develops a functional ceramics based on Far Eastern traditional glazes (tenmoku, celadon, copper red glaze, etc.).

In 1995, she settles near Toulouse, in a small village, where she builds her workshop and kiln. She then abandons the utility work to devote herself to single sculptural pieces.
Her glaze research changes radically, moving away from smooth and shiny surfaces, to cracked surfaces, in thick superimpositions, causing strong tensions between them.
Inspired by the chaotic geology of the nearby Pyrenees, her pieces are of rough and strong expression where the glazes are treated as layers of matter.

In recent years, her research has focused on the theme of "composition-disintegration". Using only clays and minerals collected in her living place or during her travels, she integrates them into sculptures that are themselves strongly influenced by their o...

"Les Journées de la Céramique, Paris, 2022
Un monde minéral", Carte blanche à S. Perret. Centre céramique contemporaine Giroussens, 2022
Les Journées de la Céramique, Paris, 2021
Le Lavoir, Clamart, 2020
Les Allées Céramiques, Toulouse, 2019
Salon National des Beaux-Arts, Carrousel du Louvre, Paris, 2019
« Terre et feu », La Menuiserie, Rodez, 2019
Les Journées de la Céramique, Paris, 2018
Galerie « La Ligne Bleue », Carsac, 2017
La sculpture céramique contemporaine, Centre Céramique Giroussens, 2017
Chateau de Lavardens, 2017
  « 3 » avec Annie Baratz et Jean-Pierre Chollet, Centre Céramique Giroussens,  2016
  Keramiekcentrum Tiendschuur Tegelen, Pays-Bas, 2015
« Rouge de cuivre », Centre Céramique Giroussens, 2015
  La Serre Créative, Toulouse, 2014
Galerie Le Lavoir, Clamart, 2014
Exposition "Passage, Centre Céramique Giroussens, 2014
Moulins Albigeois, Albi, 2014
  Tour de Montsalès, 2013
Galerie de l'Echarpe, Toulouse, 2013
  Centre Céramique Giroussens, 2012
EADS ASTRIUM, 2012
Salon d'Automne, Muret, 2012
  Château de Lavardens, 2011
Château de Saint-Amans-en-Puisaye, 2011
Centre céramique Giroussens, 2011
  Galerie Brigitte Griffault, Montauban, 2010
Le Couvent, Treigny, 2010
Ga...