It’s not often that we write up a post about collaborative efforts. But I can’t help but get excited about this one: Eve Duhamel and Julien Vallée (both from Montreal and now based in Berlin), have decided to team up.
Their upcoming exhibition “Raking leaves in the Wind,” opens in Berlin, Germany, Octobert 29th, at Create Berlin.
Their individual folio sites are worth trawling through. Their work has that rich, textured quality, which comes from using a lot of “traditional” hand-made techniques to create their illustrations and animations.
According to them:
I (Eve) was more into the art scene, doing video and painting exhibitions and creating flyers for Montreal music and club scene. Julien was in the motion design and graphic design world, and had just finished the video for the Black and White agency and some opening titles for televisions shows.
On deciding to work together:
“[…] we felt that our projects were both gravitating around the same feel and process. We both like the direct contact with the materiality of our work, so therefore to create things by hand and shape whole ideas with little means. We also felt like art and design should always remain fun and that as designer and artist we shouldnʼt take ourselves too seriously. At the same time we remain very concerned and meticulous toward the final result of each project.”
How do you see yourself as designer?
EVE: I come from the art world. I guess I just keep doing my thing, but that now it reaches to other fields, like design. I donʼt know if this is due to a extensive democratization of visuals arts or by design getting more and more open up. Maybe both. I think weʼve realized we could coexist well and grow a lot from each otherʼs field of expertise and knowledge.
How would you describe your creative process?
JULIEN: When I start a new project it stays in my mind day and night, and I go everywhere with something to write or draw on. I often find my ideas outside of my studio. I also like to do research on my subject. See what has already been done, figure out what has not been done, and keep in mind the good and bad sides of both. Looking at what has been done on the same subject in different countries also helps me discover other ways of thinking and representing visually. I don’t always keep the same idea from beginning to end.
How do you see your work in the context of the high-tech industry we’re in?
EVE: Often, doodles, handmade or DIY is viewed as childish. And it is partly true, in a way. I mean, itʼs kind of like learning more “grown up” tools like computers, to then decide not to use them. Personally, I prefer handmade because of the contact you get with the piece you create, and also because I really like the combination of childhoodʼs simple and colorful imagery with adulthoodʼs message, concepts, everlasting questioning, cynicism and irony.
Plus, I feel like you can make a easier and simpler contact with the viewers. We bring them back to places and thoughts they had long forgotten.
What work do you have coming up?
EVE: I am currently working full time on the upcoming exhibition which opens next Wednesday October 29th. I will present the showreel of the videos projected at the Place des Arts for the opening show of the 20th Francofolies Festival in Montreal as well as the one I made for the Derapage non-narrative video event. I will also show some ludic sculptures as well as drawings and paintings.
After the opening, I have a video project as well as illustration contracts for record labels, t-shirts as well as a self-promotion poster for the great Yellow Bird Project. I also have a print exhibition coming up at the beginning of the year.
JULIEN: I am currently working on our next exhibition and on commercial that will go out in 2009, which I canʼt talk about more at the moment. I am also working on a book cover for Die Gestalten and two upcoming exhibitions in Toulouse, France, and Seoul, South Korea.