Lithographie 3 couleurs, 2021
I prayed for Polylithionite to be ready for the auction. Until last Monday, we were unsure if the impression of Julie's new series was going to work. That's how lithography is, I guess; you cross your fingers and hope the magic happens. At least, that's always how I understood it: an esoteric discipline for which initiates could do anything.
In 2012, during the student strikes, I took the amazing art history course called “Techniques and Materials”. For administrative reasons, we were not allowed to take the course in the arts building; we had to understand the techniques through reading only, without any demonstration. The more I read about lithography, the less I understood. What I know now is that there is a stone you draw on, some kind of grease and ink rollers. Even today, the lithographic process seems closer to witchcraft than visual arts to me.
I laughed under my breath when Julie told me that she was working on a new series inspired by minerals. The lithographic witch switches from botanical subjects to the study of crystals and stones. A metaphor so beautiful that even I couldn't have thought of it.
- Sevia Pellissier