Guillaume Pilet

Double Happiness is a Chinese ligature, “囍” composed of 喜喜 – two copies of 喜, literally meaning joy, compressed to assume the square shape of a standard Chinese. Typically written in Chinese calligraphy, 囍 appears on traditional decorative items associated with marriage. Not only in China, but also in neighboring countries such as Japan and Vietnam, 囍 is found on invitations, decoration and ceremony tea ware related to the wedding ceremony, as well as on gift items given to the bride and groom. The color of the character is usually red, occasionally black.

In his first solo exhibition at Barbara Seiler, Guillaume Pilet (*1984, Lausanne CH) is showing his latest work conceived during two consecutive residencies in Shanghai last year. A new, large scale, floating painting carries the name of Huangpu River, a 117km long river that flows through Shanghai, while a series of small, shaped paintings refers to the Pudong, a district in Shanghai east of the Huangpu River, where Pilet spent his second residency. The new, shaped paintings relate to Pilet’s series of shaped canvas paintings, which he started in 2014 and which is represented by the earlier painting Give truth a chance nº4 on the consecutive wall in the exhibition. For the first time in his extensive exhibition history the artist combines new works with earlier pieces. Together with the intensive colors – Palermo Brown, English Rose Pink, Mojave Yellow and Atlantik Blue – he chose for the walls, Pilet creates this exhibition as an encompassing painting experience.
Two other series that are represented in Double Happiness are the ‘tie and dye’ paintings with MI HERMANO and MI HERMANA, and a paravent which is part of the installation Atlas theater, and the mummy sculptures, which refer to early childhood memories. Few years ago, digging into his family archive, Pilet found pictures of kids mummified under layers of toilet paper. He placed these human shaped cocoons into the space to create an uncanny presence with the intent to trigger a kind of déjà-vu, a memory of memories.

Guillaume Pilet describes himself—although he already counts among today’s established young Swiss artists—as an interested amateur in the world of art. In his works, he skillfully juggles between high and low, art and do-it-yourself, and, in so doing, incessantly blurs the boundaries between the genres. Naïve forms and motifs, simple materials and techniques such as wood, ceramic, batik or sponge painting, and everyday objects are intermixed with references and figures from art history and the sciences. He energetically blends intuition and careful analysis, aesthetics of bad taste and distinguished chic. (Sabine Rusterholz Petko)

Guillaume Pilet, born 1984 in Payerne, Switzerland. He completed his studies at ECAL, Lausanne. He has exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Switzerland and abroad, including a solo exhibition at Kunsthaus Glarus (2014) and Centre Culturel Suisse in Paris (2008). He is the recipient of prestigious prizes including the Swiss Art Award, the Kiefer Hablitzel Award and Prix Mobilière Young Art.

Together with Zhao Lin he will do the a performance titled BEFORE WE MET
on Friday, 17 January at 18:30.