Janique Bourget

Paper sculptor

©Janique Bourget

Marie Prechac ©Ateliers de Paris

©Éric Bobrie ©Janique Bourget

Imaginative worlds in white paper

Janique creates landscapes and organic works in paper
Her work involves movement, balance, fluidity and elegance
Her artistic studies taught her to enjoy working entirely by hand

Janique Bourget is a young French artisan who uses paper to create extraordinary and magical worlds. Her playing field is white paper, a noble material which reveals great richness behind its simplicity, and which Janique finds very inspiring "because of its finesse, lightness and apparent fragility". For many years she has developed aerial, light, organic works, always in connection with movement, whether real or evoked; works that the viewer can feel before they can understand. For Janique, her art is "a dialogue between two entities, one human and the other mineral/vegetal".

Interview

©Janique Bourget

Marie Prechac ©Ateliers de Paris

How did you train to do this?: I have always been very sensitive to working with materials in a contemporary way. I drew my knowledge from a diploma in arts and crafts, then I got a degree in upholstery, and then another in fine arts, where I took a more sensitive and narrative approach to the subject.
Where do you find inspiration?: I always start from my senses and the feel of the material under my fingers. It is, above all, about drawing from this experience. As a result, a work is organic, vibrant and close to a living form. I take real pleasure in using my imagination, revealing new dimensions and varying the scale of my works.
What do people not normally know about your work?: When I first started to work with paper in 2012 I focused on the idea of emptiness and lightness. From this I developed my first sculptures, giving life to a body of work centred on hollows and reliefs, which I continue to develop today through works that are increasingly monumental.
What does 'well made' mean to you?: To make something is a process: it starts from an idea and continues in dialogue between the hands and the material until the culmination of a form. This journey takes time. For me it is a relationship with the purity of an emotion. Something well made touches us and resonates within us.

Janique Bourget is an expert artisan: she began her career in 2012