Exhibition view
Claude Eigan, Mud Bird (1 & 2), 2020 Styrofoam, metal, resin, plaster, paint, white wine 76 x 80 x 108 cm & 50 x 45 x 60 cm
Claude Eigan, Mud Bird (1), 2020 (Detail)
Claude Eigan and Johann Besse, Caniveau Grove, 2020 Digital print on mesh tarpaulin 620 x 320 cm / Claude Eigan, Mud Bird (3 & 4), 2020 Styrofoam, metal, resin, plaster, paint 75 x 65 x 90 cm & 70 x 65 x 80 cm
Exhibition view
Claude Eigan and Johann Besse, Caniveau Grove, 2020 Digital print on mesh tarpaulin 620 x 320 cm / Claude Eigan, Mud Bird (3), 2020 Styrofoam, metal, resin, plaster, paint 75 x 65 x 90 cm
Claude Eigan and Johann Besse, Caniveau Grove, 2020 Digital print on mesh tarpaulin 620 x 320 cm / Claude Eigan, Mud Bird (3), 2020, (Detail)
Claude Eigan, Supper Host, 2020 Glazed ceramic, copper, metal, white wine Various dimensions
Claude Eigan, Supper Host, 2020 Glazed ceramic, copper, metal, white wine Various dimensions
Claude Eigan, Supper Host, 2020, (Detail)
Claude Eigan, Supper Host, 2020, (Detail)
Claude Eigan, Mud Bird (2), 2020 Styrofoam, metal, resin, plaster, paint 50 x 45 x 60 cm
Claude Eigan, Mud Bird (1), 2020 Styrofoam, metal, resin, plaster, paint, white wine 76 x 80 x 108 cm
Claude Eigan, Mud Bird (1), 2020 (Detail)
Claude Eigan and Johann Besse, Caniveau Grove, 2020 (Detail) Digital print on mesh tarpaulin 620 x 320 cm
About four-hundred million years ago, the evolutionary branch that carried both insects and other life-forms, including those that would eventually evolve into humans, split apart. This division, propelled by and made greater with time, has led us to become exceedingly genetically distant to our tiny, buzzing counterparts. That said, the parasitical tendencies found in a variety of insect relations, permeates by-and-large through human society on both micro (personal) and macro (entire populations) levels.
What kind of colony is this?
Claude Eigan’s Caniveau Grove imagines the many faces of parasitism as a lush, volatile environment where an array of hybrid life-forms scavenge, bite, and adapt their ways to survive. Nestled in this speculative habitat, fluid overflows out from engorged ticks, resting after a big feed. A tang wafts throughout, sweet and appealing. Spindly-legged animals, perhaps descendants of those imagined by the late painter Zdzisław Beksiński, comb the bottom for a drop of nectar and invite us in to join the feast.
— Christina Gigliotti