Wednesday, June 29, 2011

A boatload of pilgrims

The royal residence at Loches is also an art gallery. Interspersed with the historical artifacts throughout the château is an ever-changing exhibit of various art works. The current installation is a very contemporary set of mostly abstract pieces. This is one of the less abstract ones that I saw.

There's quite a bit of detail on those figurines. Click to artify.

It's called "Nave de pèlerins" by Hélène Sellier-Duplessis. Pèlerins means pilgrims, usually of the religious variety. Nave, on the other hand, is tricky. I couldn't find it in any of my usual dictionaries or online. Since these pilgrims are standing in what looks like a boat, I supposed it comes from either navire (ship) or navette (shuttle). I finally looked in the Grand Robert (the unabridged dictionary) and discovered that the word is an archaic literary form of the word navire.

Some of the pilgrims look like humans dressed as animals. Others look like actual animals. I have no idea what is going on or what this is meant to evoke. Such is my artistic sensibility.

14 comments:

  1. I loved these - we saw them the other day.

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  2. You can appreciate the work that went into the piece.
    Love it.

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  3. I'd want a Tetanus booster shot before I got close to it.

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  4. It reminds me of Noah's ark, probably a Mardi Gras party!

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  5. This is so beautiful! I love it. No exaggeration.

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  6. Love all the detail in that piece!
    Thanks for stopping by today.
    Jim

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  7. Walt

    Have you been watching Jo Wilfred tonight?

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  8. Is France really Catholic anymore?

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  9. susan, did you see the fox with ferns growing from its coat?

    leon, apparently its all ceramic.

    starman, possible...

    cubby, hehehe.

    evelyn, I like that theory!

    judy, :)

    kristi, if you google the artist's name, you can see more of her work. She's got a web site.

    jim, thank YOU!

    t.b., no, the live matches are on a premium channel that I don't pay for, so I have to see them later. But I know what happened.

    michael, well, most French people are Catholic, but they're not particularly religious. And the government is strictly secular.

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  10. Beautiful ceramic. Re the archaiic form of navire. It is why in English the main part of a church is called the 'nave' ie "ship". Another one of those loaned words.

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  11. May I tell you one more time how much I love ANOTHER AMERICAN IN FRANCE? Your photos are A+ & world class. I remain a fan.

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  12. I love this sculpture. Wish I could have seen it in person.

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