If the sculptures of Michel Gouaud are presented in pairs or groups, it is because they are a tribute to couples, families, and friendship. The characters, animals, or fantastical creatures are staged to invite everyone to freely express their own dreamlike interpretation.
“Of Salt and Sap” because the main material is wood spotted by the photographer’s eye and recovered on the beaches after storms. Natural, polished, or “rusty,” it has, in contact with the hand, through a jubilant creative act, imbued itself with poetry tinged with humor.
Michel Gouaud could thus claim to be from the École de Nice since he was born there and was a teacher there. He preferred to retrace his steps, rejecting the mathematics where twice zero is zero. No, with next to nothing, you can make something when you put your imagination to the service of Art.
Art, a renowned outlet, a source of emotions, and a vector of encounters. With a conviction: each being is unique, and their scars are the marks of an intense life; Art, though multiple, cannot be series-produced. It must be singular.
