ADRIANNA WALLIS

ADRIANNA WALLIS
Adrianna Wallis was born in France in 1981. A graduate of the
University of Barcelona’s Fine Arts program, she currently lives and work
in Corrençon en Vercors, France.
Her practice is focused on the ways we relate to the ordinary objects of
everyday life. These objects alternately constitute the form, the material, the
language, and the symbol of her work. Liberated from their primary purpose,
the objects shed their utilitarian function and acquire a narrative dimension.
The artist’s treatment of this transitory material – a mix of technique,
meticulous craft, and a tender and subversive poetic approach – offers the
viewer a work full of humility with a singular evocative power. By drawing
from her personal history and the unveiled intimacies contained in the
material, she dives into family ties, the passage between generations,
femininity, as well as suffered absences and excessive presences.
Adrianna’s work provides the spectator multiple entry points that quietly
elicit memories, some real and some only imagined. Effectively, the object
becomes a gateway to one’s own intimacies.
One-Person Exhibitions
Awards and Grants
2016 Entre Prendre et Perdre, Galeria Carles Taché, Barcelona, Spain.
2015 U, UV, WX, W, 3D Gallery, Venice, Italy.
6 mèches de plus, Galerie Laure Roynette, Paris, France.
2014 Rare et Magnifique, Angle Art Contemporain, St-Paul-Trois-
Châteaux, France.
2013 IJ, U, X y Otros Recuerdos Dormidos, Festival ArtNou, Galerie
La Taché, Barcelona.
2012 Rare et Magnifique - La Performance, La Sala Vinçon, Barcelona.
Bijou Bougie, FAD, Foment de les Arts i Disseny, Barcelona.
2013 Visual Arts Grant, Fundació Felicia Fuster, Barcelona.
2012 Visual Art Grant, Sala d’Art Jove, Barcelona.
2011 Nominated for ArtFad Award, FAD, Barcelona.
First prize, Contemporary Jewelry Competition, Enjoia’t, FAD,
Barcelona.
2008 First prize, Raima Ilustration and Design Competition, Barcelona.
Residencies
Group Exhibitions
2014 Lugar a Dudas, Cali, Colombia (Oscar Muñoz’s residency)
2015 Festival Nomade (performance), Paris.
Infiltrations, CAB, Grenoble, France.
Serendipity, Galerie Laure Roynette, Paris.
Ex-Voto, Espace d’Art François Auguste Ducros, Grignan, France.
2014 OFF - Contemporary Art Fair, 3D Gallery, Brussels.
Res no satura. Acte i Prefaci. DAFO, Lleida, Spain.
2013 Christmas Exhibition, Le Magasin, Grenoble, France.
8th Leandre Cristòfol Art Biennale, Art Center La Panera,
Lleida, Spain
Altari Profani, SENSUS, Florence, Italy.
Materia de Ensayo, Demolden Video Project, Santander, Spain.
2012 Ouverture I et IV, Sala d’Art Jove, Barcelona.
2011 ArtFad, FAD, Barcelona.
Degree Show – El Camí Per Fer, Casa Elizalde, Barcelona.
Formation
2013 BFA, Universidad de Barcelona
Rare et Magnifique
2012
Ground objects, polyurethane resin, 5 min. HD video.
Variable dimensions
Over the course of six months the artist bought objects on the Internet
that were described as “rare” and “magnificent” by their sellers. The 25
objects received constitute a unique raw material, loaded with stories and
subjective value, which she ground into fine powder and cast into 12 ingots.
Click here to watch the video
À ma mère. À ma fille.
2011
Made-to-measure case, 18k gold-plated chain.
67 x 27 x 27 cm
Necklaces or jewels are transmitted from one generation to another. Here,
the chain is lengthened. Links are added to attach the three generations of
women: my mother, myself, my daughter.
Bijou Bougie
2012
Melted altar candles, wick, clasp, 4 min HD video.
Variable dimensions
Fine pearl necklaces made of wax, gradually erased by a flame. During this
slow progression we time-travel back along the creative process – but,
above all, we are invited to travel back in a more personal way, following
the thread of our own memory. Jewels are intimate objects, singular and
sensitive. The memories and stories they carry, the bonds they create
between two people, are often imperishable.
Click here to watch the video
Poire
2010
White bronze.
13 × 9 × 10 cm
Les Soliloques
2015
Sound recording (11 minutes), hypersonic sound speaker, light tripod, bench
The performance is a study of our interior thoughts. I ask passerbys to
verbally express their current thoughts—literally speaking to themselves,
as they hear their words through headphones while I record. The thoughts
are then played in the National Archives building with a specific ultrasound
speaker, allowing the recorded thoughts to penetrate the very inside of the
spectator’s head.
How do those intimate words resonate with our own lives ? What do we
find in those endless flows of dialogue with oneself, in this ordinarily inaudible swarm of thoughts?
Click here to listen to an excerpt
Alphabet pour réécrire l’histoire des familles (incomplet)
2012 to date
Monogrammed bed sheet collection in alphabetical order, needles,
wooden bed structure, laser copy.
Variable dimensions
The artist has undertaken a long and uncertain search for pairs of letters
that will recreate the 26-letter alphabet from family initials embroidered on
bed sheets. The sheets came from various countries, social statuses, timeframes, and were found at homes, on the Internet, in car boots... All linens
carry a very personal and intimate story. The sum of these uncovered
intimacies dissolves in the objectivity and regularity of the alphabet.
The spectator is invited to join in and help complete the alphabet by
looking for IJ, U, or X linens in their own family.
Confettis pour Adieux
2013
4,000 pieces of hand-made porcelain confetti, wooden structure.
Variable dimensions
Confettis pour Adieux (Farewell Confetti) starts with the artist and
several volunteers from among the spectators throwing handfuls of
porcelain confetti in the air. This ritual gesture is presented as an
opportunity to celebrate the release of a stifling thought. The end of the
thought is represented by the crushing of the confetti underfoot.
During the course of the exhibition, the public is invited to walk over the
confetti left on the ground, thus grinding the pieces into dust.
Collection de vides
2009
Plaster, chromogenic prints, paper.
25 × 100 × 25 cm
The empty moulds and photographs of the objects symbolize the feeling
of lack, of absence, felt during the artist’s childhood, the consequence of
successive losses.
Sculpture de poche
2012
Solid bronze.
15 × 15 × 8 cm
Interior of a pair of jeans’ pocket filled with bronze. The sculpture weighs 2 kg.
Noeuds 1 à 6
2014
Ink on tracing paper.
Each drawing 50 × 70 cm
The artist asked random people that she met to draw their “interior knot.”
Here, she presents a selection of reproductions that invert the original
drawings, each accompanied by a title.
Marie qui défait les noeuds
2014
Religious incense grains of “Mary, Undoer of Knots”, ink-jet prints.
Each box 17 × 20 cm
Burning incense grains of “Mary, Undoer of Knots” is supposed to solve
problematic situations. By sorting out the multicoloured grains, the artist
plunges her hands into a chaos of worries to establish a meticulous order.
L’harmonie immense qui dit tout
2014
Rope and woolen sally, pulley, inkjet print of Victor Hugo poem.
Variable dimensions
To link together this rope in the gallery with bell n°2 in the cathedral’s bell
tower, located 125 metres away; to allow the visitor to ring the bell by himself; to let the bell disperse loud and clear his state of mind...
All those wishes could not be fulfilled – despite the technical feasibility of
the project and the blessing of the religious authorities – due to lack of
administrative authorization.