It’s simplex yet it’s complex! Pierre Legrande’s
work in coded script is a detour from the regular, yet it began with a simple
quest to understand the mystery of being human. “The more one tries to
understand life and matter, the more one is confronted by a baffling
complexity,” he summarises. It was this quest that brought Pierre, an engineer
by profession, to Auroville, 47 years ago. It launched an art style that was
not only unique in its expression – the coded script – but a means to express his
inner being. “Whatever I do is related to the yogic or spiritual discipline. When
you are happy or sad, it reflects on your outer being and this is the kind of
sense I want to portray in my art,” says this artist who evocatively uses
monochrome and brightly coloured palettes to express these moods.
Writing became a medium for Pierre to anchor these expressions. “All of
art evolves from the text that I take from the books of greats like Buddha or
Tagore or my own poems. For me, my paintings are a piece of writing in a
material way. When I see a text, a pattern emerges from the alphabets. This
triggers my imagination which then morphs into dots and stokes,” explains
Pierre of his coded script invention in painting. Layering the concept by
adding text upon text, Pierre gradually moves from the simple to the complex.
His latest coded offering is
aptly titled to convey the ‘Simply complex’ process. “After the invention
of my script we made some music out of it. I was intrigued at the thought of making
music on the computer by adding simple layers in order to achieve complexity,”
reveals Pierre.
Not surprisingly, in another detour from the regular, Pierre has preferred
to work on mesh or mosquito net rather than canvas. His oeuvre of modular work
is thus light and easily portable. “I prefer to work on mesh. Sometimes I work
on the back and front as well. So the colour oozes from the back. It’s like a
sculpture,” he maintains. The well-spring of this idea is the traditional
Japanese Tokonoma. “They have this ritual of changing the kakemono on different
days for different occasions, so there is no monotony. It’s like a living
wall,” explains Pierre, whose own sense of ‘nomadism’ in art is inspired by
this concept.
But the ultimate USP of this artist who has exhibited alongside Mark
Tobey and Richard Serra and is included in the ‘Odd Volumes’ book in the Yale
University Art Gallery collection, lies in his principle that his art is not
just an object to be viewed by the people but ‘a way, to experience life
anew though colours, transparency and light in its many layered complexities’.
(Simply Complex Exhibition will be held at Gallery Gitanjali December 6,
2014 to January 2, 2015.
At GALF on December 5, 2014, 3.15 to 3.45 pm at the
International Centre, Dona Paula, Pierre Legrand will be in conversation with
Anuradha Majumdar on the topic ‘Writing in Colour’)
