Gilles Barbier's Cosmogonies at Galerie Vallois

Gilles Barbier presents an exhibition of invented cosmogonies at Galerie Georges-Philippe et Nathalie Vallois in Paris from May 28 to July 31, 2010. The show, titled 'There is no Moon without a Rocket,' features drawings and sculptures depicting worlds shaped like a tongue, a mound, or an anus. Barbier discusses his method of using 'production machines' such as copying dictionary entries, inspired by cellular automata and the 'Game of Life' by John Horton Conway. He references Nelson Goodman's pragmatism and science fiction author Greg Egan. The artist, born in 1965 in Vanuatu, draws on his childhood memories of beaches littered with flip-flops (tongues) for the 'world in the shape of a tongue.' He also connects his work to Vanuatu's sand drawing tradition, which he links to Eulerian graphs and Turing machine ribbons. Barbier plans to 'restart' his oeuvre from its origin and develop combinatorial spaces, rethinking exhibition spaces as cave-like habitats with multiple pathways. The interview, conducted via email by Richard Leydier, appears in art press n°368 (June 2010).