Agnes Durbet

Year of birth: 1964.
Where do you live: Remote Northern Queensland in Australia (Midge Point).
Describe your art in three words: Stories / Mirror / Dream.
Website

Can you describe your journey as an artist and how your family background has influenced your work?

I was lucky enough to be exposed to art at an early age by my mother. Her own father was a respected writer and lover of the art. My father was more on the scientific side. We had an extensive library at home and when you are too young to read you absorb knowledge by looking. Visual art is a start and it captivated me. Mythology which I never really differentiated from religion intertwined into philosophy while at school and literature while at home. I loved stories and feelings. Reality was a fairytale and vice & versa. I dived into color like they were dramas.

We didn’t go often to the capital (Paris) but when we did my mother made sure we visited  new galleries, museums or exhibits, sometimes theater. It was the only thing I appreciated from this city who was so gray and sad.

My senses were always alert even if I didn’t show it and I feasted on thoughts, stories, movement in 2 D, 3 D or in writing.

Agnes Durbet | Balade 9

You mention a resistance to conventional education; how has that shaped your artistic style?

I absolutely hated teachers and school. School was for me where you die. I was bored, ostracized, diminished and put down constantly. I had no time to waste and school was a waste of time. I can’t recall anything I learned at school. Year after years the gap was insurmountable.

I started to create images very late in life because before the age of 46 I was too unsure and my self-esteem too damaged by education. As a woman, I think it is hard also to detach yourself from the need to please others. In art you have to not be hurt by what others dislike about you. It takes time…a lot of time (the same one which was wasted in school).

How do you define beauty in your work, and what role does it play in your creative process?

Beauty is a feeling, nothing else. I love paradoxes and storytelling and I try my best to translate them in my images. Art is a mirror, what you like or don’t like is very much linked to what you enjoy or reject from yourself. The story may not please you sometimes and beauty in general isn’t art.

Agnes Durbet | Vanity Fair

Your art intertwines surrealism and neoclassicism. How do these movements inform your compositions?

The surrealism is the storytelling part, a message in a bottle, the neo classicism is more about the flow, elegance and the harmony.

Can you explain your creative process when capturing fleeting moments in your photographs?

My first photographs were from industrial sites because I felt a feminine tragic presence in the underground city of Sydney. It is a place where men work. I was working with men there and I never saw a woman underground. I needed the contrast, I was following a ghost and I enjoyed every bits of it.

I live now in a natural paradise without gender. It is empty and beautiful so I am trying to go beyond the beauty. Photographs are not for me limited to be the official witness of what our eyes can see, they need to go further. Further than the postcard. Journalism is a good example even if my images cannot be further away from journalism. In journalism photographs try to tell a story by emphasizing on feeling and playing with light. I play with dreams and over impose them on sceneries.

Agnes Durbet | Balade 1

What inspired you to explore mixed media alongside photography and painting?

I started painting this year. I like to play with rough textures so I use mix media on my canvas. As a child I was fascinated by the concept of “non finito” , a sculpting technique meaning that the work is unfinished. I always liked the result more than when the sculpture was complete. I tried this on my painting. It blurs the gap between reality and imagination like in my photos.

I am also exploring mixing photographs and painting.

How does living and working in both Australia and France impact your artistic perspective?

I live in Australia. It is a beautiful country but very challenging for artists more so than Europe. Even if I was born and raised in France I immigrated twice in my life. I first went to Canada for 26 years after post-secondary education and immigrated to Australia 12 years ago. Canada was an easy integration, Australia was more difficult for personal reasons. The Australian challenge pushed me to create and I finally did.