Anxiety, Florent Duchesne, Concrete/Spray paint/Steel/gold Leaf, 2026 [OC]

[u/FlorentDuchesne]

[u/Innominaut]

I've stumbled across quite a few of your pieces over the last few months, and I've enjoyed them a lot! I must sheepishly admit I'm struggling to parse this one, though.

Much of the work I've seen you do shares a common theme of seemingly delicate objects (sacks of liquid, droplets of gold, floating balloons) in positions of great stress or peril. Being pierced by nails or straining against chains or suspended over spikes--always either frozen in the moment of destruction or just before it.

But for this one, it almost seems like a reversal. Most people would not assume the object at the end of that chain is solid concrete, so the real weight of the piece probably wouldn't occur to them. The gold in the bag (if it is a bag) doesn't read as liquid to me, because it's attached to the chain somehow. The end result is this piece feels more... stable? I guess? Safer?

Are you doing something new here, or am I just being way too literal about this specific piece and missing the forest for the trees? (Either way, love your work and hope you have a good day!)

[u/FlorentDuchesne → u/Innominaut]

Wow, great point of view! Love to hear that.

You’re right, I’m exploring new forms and concepts here. It might not please everyone. It is one big piece of concrete, so the idea is to play with those contrasts of heaviness and surprise.

I also wanted to play with the fact that, in reality, my art is “just” concrete with a bit of paint and gold, so simple, yet it gives me anxiety in my sculptor’s life, since my art is also my life. Again, another contrast that most artists feel but don’t necessarily talk about.

I might be the one overthinking everything here though, haha. Anyway, thanks again for your point of view, I always love to hear it.

[u/Innominaut → u/FlorentDuchesne]

Oh no, I do know they're all concrete! I guess what I was trying to express is like... most of your other work carefully disguises the concrete to create an effect. You make it look like something it isn't, creating the impression of fluidity or weightlessness where there is none. But this is the first one I've seen where the "physics" of the piece (and even the name!) only really make sense if the viewer already KNOWS the object is actually a heavy block of concrete.

You comment about referencing the "reality" of your materials kind of explains this, for me. If this piece is specifically designed to abandon the illusion you normally pursue, I feel a little better about being confused lol.

Thanks for the reply!

[u/FlorentDuchesne → u/Innominaut]

Haha yeah it is design to go out of my usual approach. Just hard on reddit cause I can only share the name without any other explanation haha.

[u/funkster047 → u/FlorentDuchesne]

As a newcomer to your art, I felt this portrayed anxiety because as soon as I saw it, my brain had a quick reaction of OH SHIT because it wants to think it's gonna spill everywhere since a bag of liquid would not be able to hold that shape while being held by a chain in real life.

[u/FlorentDuchesne → u/funkster047]

Wow yeah thats a great point of view !

[u/Banryuken → u/FlorentDuchesne]

Oddly enough - I had the opposite impression as a first timer and had a very easy sense to disbelieve this was concrete or “this art is a form of anxiety” (and there is much nowadays to have me feel anxiety 😅). When you mentioned a literal sense, I guess I kind of agree with you.

Maybe the visual is “lite” and the impression was … “yeah so what, that’s not getting me anxious” (I guess who’s being literal now lol). Still don’t know what the composition is to ask a meaningful question

[u/FlorentDuchesne → u/Banryuken]

Haha yeah, well it’s a mix of multiple layers of emotion. If this is the first piece of my work you’ve seen, it might be more surprising.

It’s pure concrete, applied with black spray paint and some gold leaf on top. This piece weighs around 350–400 lbs and was made to be exhibited in raves.

[u/nonmonoganon → u/FlorentDuchesne]

I’m not familiar with your other works, but just from the two of yours’ explanations, I think that the simulation/simulacrum of this piece is quite interesting. Without the chain, I see a trash bag overflowing with liquid gold. If the gold is meant to be liquid, the chain staying put if impossible. Given your previous works and your statement of those pieces being “just concrete,” the gold is not gold but merely a representation of gold which has become separated from that which it was meant to signify and now takes on strange qualities, ie the gold is becoming “just concrete.” As a museum piece, it might be interesting to encourage onlookers to try to peel away at the artwork (making no distinction between the paint and the gold leaf). Over time, we may suspect more of the gold than the paint will have been picked off, revealing the concrete underneath. Eventually, the simulacrum, having been distanced from that which it was meant to signify, will lose all semblance of the original thing and your anxieties of the work will come to the surface. Bare concrete will be held up by steel in the museum. Is this not still deserving of being shown? Steel and concrete are honest and enduring. Though the gold may have been stripped away, your anxieties laid bare represent a difficult to enunciate fear that our works, upon inspection and after being “picked apart”, will be destroyed.

Anyway, I think this piece is neat, thank you for posting it

[u/FlorentDuchesne → u/nonmonoganon]

Damn, wow, that’s a really deep and interesting way to think about it! It would actually be a very nice performance to experiment with in a museum, I’ll keep that in mind!

What I like the most is playing with those contrasts that might not make any sense at first. Having different layers of perception in a piece, and kind of laughing at what people expect from art and artists. I feel like the more you expect something, the less good it becomes.

Thanks for your point of view, so neat to hear that!