Armed with pliers and wire, Claude-Olivier Guay creates transforming sculptures that mimic organic matter and various creatures. The artist, living and working in Quebec City, uses video to show how his creations can evolve. In these pieces, winged insects and birds can emerge from skulls and our bodies can transform into wild, woodland animals.
Imago from Claude-Olivier Guay on Vimeo.
This can mean thousands of hours in work and thousands of feet in wire. From there, he crafts puzzles that illuminate the fabric of lifeforms across the Earth. “When I create, I start with the affinities between the shapes of human and animal parts, how they can come together in a meaningful way,” the artist told the Creators Project.
Cénotaphe from Claude-Olivier Guay on Vimeo.
Videos of the piece show best how fluidly these processes happen. The change is elegant, despite the hardened and rigid materials used to comprise the human/animal forms. Using what appears to be a stop-motion technique, the experience is akin to timelapse videos on nature programming.
La Tanière from Claude-Olivier Guay on Vimeo.