Louise Hervé and Chloé Maillet, Spectacles without Objects. 35mm slides, super 8 film and video transferred to HD video, 33', 2016. Image courtesy of Galerie Marcelle Alix. Photograph by Yann Monel.
Louise Hervé is one half of the artist duo collaboration - Louise Hervé & Chloé Maillet. Both artists were Te Whare Hēra's international artists in residence in 2017.
Acts of narration are a central theme in Hervé & Maillet's artistic practice. Their stories bring together historical facts, popular fiction and museum dioramas. They produce genre film, installations and performances’ - these are usually a combination of the traditional educational lecture, performance and conference.
Louise Hervé and Chloé Maillet, Initialise the Model - Harbour. Preparatory photograph, 2017. Courtesy of the artists.
In this presentation Louise Hervé focused on one of two 'chapters'. The Waterway (2014) which combines the archaeology of European mineral spas, sea monsters and the immortal inhabitants of Atlantis. She also discussed Spectacles without Objects (2016), the duo's most recent work, which stages an enactment/re-enactment of the visions and philosophies of a historic community.
Hervé & Maillet have been working collaboratively for more than ten years. Hervé studied Art and Art History and graduated with a B.A. in 2003 and a M.A. in 2005. Maillet completed her PhD in Anthropological History in 2010. They started working together in Paris in 2000 and have continued to pursue research-based projects that ususally take two to three years each to complete. Each chapter of research takes the form of a film or a series of films, an exhibition or a publication.
SUPPORTED BY THE FRENCH EMBASSY IN NEW ZEALAND
