Julien Segard’s series Dark Was The Night creates a dialogue between the visceral and the peripheral, vacuity and mass. The body of work immerses the viewer in the minuteness of their elements while simultaneously operating as the entry points into vast infinite spaces. Through drawings made with charcoal and dust on coloured fabric, depicting white phosphorus explosions frozen in time, Segard offers a lens into a hazy apocalyptic backdrop by evoking a constant tension and traces of the imperceptible. The works also refer to Segard’s interest in the night, the infinite stars and celestial bodies – their presence and absence, and their creation and obliteration – revealed through trails of iridescent flames spiralling and cutting through the impenetrable darkness, evoking a sensation of a dramatic cosmos. Segard explores the characteristic paradoxes in the field of view and delves into how our bodies and minds navigate the two contrasting planes by juxtaposing the familiar interior with the unknown limitless exterior.
Julien Segard (b. 1980 in Marseille, France) lives and works in Goa, India. Education: 2004 – 2008 Master of Arts, École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris; 2002 – 2004 Bachelor of Arts, University of Provence, Aix-en-Provence, France; 1999 – 2002 Graphic Design Diploma, Lycée Saint Joseph les Maristes, Marseille, France. Solo Exhibitions: 2021 A View From Nowhere, Experimenter, Kolkata; 2020 Dark Was The Night, Experimenter, Kolkata; 2019 A Second Coming, Experimenter, Kolkata; 2015 Anywhere But Here, Experimenter, Kolkata; and with Birla Academy at India Art Fair, New Delhi; 2012 Kuwait, Partapur, Rajasthan, India; Between the shelter and the temple, The Rose project space, New Delhi; 2010 Peregrinations, Ilan Engel, Paris. Group Exhibitions: 2023 Eyes of the Skin, Experimenter, Mumbai; 2019 Searching for Stars Amongst the Crescents, Experimenter, Kolkata; Sex toys for collectors, New Delhi; 2018 I Wish to Let You Fall Out of My Hands (Chapter II), Experimenter; Art Dubai, Experimenter, Dubai; India Art Fair, Experimenter, New Delhi; Sensorium, Sunaparanta, Goa Centre for the Arts, Goa, India; 2017 India Art Fair, Experimenter, New Delhi; Art Basel, Experimenter, Hong Kong; Art Dubai, Experimenter, Dubai; 2016 India Art Fair, New Delhi; Art Dubai, Experimenter, Dubai; Raster – Emerging from the Grid, Experimenter, Kolkata; 2014 Urban Utopia, Birla Academy, Kolkata; 2013 Lateral, Kona, New Delhi; Dessins contemporains, PHAKT, Rennes, France; W113, New Delhi; 2012 Subliminal Metropolis, Latitude 28, New Delhi; Sarai Reader, Devi Art Foundation, Gurugram, India; 2011 Open Studio #02, W113, New Delhi; Open Studio #01, W113, New Delhi; 2010 Jardin ephemere, Saint-Ouen, France; School of Arts, Fine Arts School, Dresden, Germany; Lignes de chance, Fondation d’entreprise Ricard, Paris.
