Sculpture Object 52: The Worm, 2017
Debarked and burned spruce wood, ebony
600 x 50 x 50 cm
 

The Axe, 2018
Debarked and burned spruce wood, marble
600 x 50 x 50 cm
 

The Bottle, 2018
Debarked and burned spruce wood, bronze
600 x 50 x 50 cm 
 

Three massive spruce trees are suspended from the ceiling. Each tree houses a carved reliquary, which in turn holds a small, delicately crafted sculpture: a worm made of wood, a marble axe, and a bronze bottle. Cut and sculpted by chainsaw—the tool of choice for the Swiss artist Claudia Comte, which is not known for its precision, but rather for its practicality and force—and slightly charred at the base, the trunks serve as pedestals and hint at a stylized sylvan environment. From wood sourced from the forest surrounding her childhood home in the Jura Mountains in Switzerland to ebony, marble, and bronze, Comte’s work expands the sculptural potential embedded in materials through the interplay of surfaces, shapes, and volumes. Driven by her interest in material memory and the careful observation of how the hand relates to different technologies, it investigates artisanal and mechanized production systems and natural materials in craft and sculpture.
 
At times her interventions spill onto the exhibition space to create immersive environments that accentuate the theatrical staging of her works. These environments are populated by a cast of recurring cartoonish characters—zigzags, worms, cactuses, corals, and croissants— defiantly rejecting the artist’s minimalist heritage and lavishly embracing the pop iconography of digital animations. With her interventions in these sites, Comte subtly highlights the agency of art to heighten our sensitivity to more-than-human worlds.
 
In Sculpture Object 52: The Worm, Comte plays with the iconic serpentine shape, rendered through the carving, modeling, and smooth refining of ebony, a precious ornamental wood distinguished by its black mirroring polish, emphasizing the somewhat ironic and pop appeal of the finished sculpture.
 
The Axe embodies the tool’s expressive gesture of dissecting wood into manageable raw, workable material sections. As much as it recalls a history of craft, skill, and technical mastery, Comte’s practice is also loaded with pressing environmental concerns and is driven by notions of action, force, and effect.
 
The Bottle deals with value, human waste, and disposability. The bronze cast of the foremost single-use plastic object could be read as a relic or a monument, a memento to remind us of the 450 years it would take this everyday object to decompose. Combining the use of timeless materials and tropes of digital images and artifacts, Comte’s sculptural works suggest a reflection across different timescales. Her work is a sincere call to move past the extractive forms of production that dominate the present, featuring elements that speak from deep time to imagined futures.

PAST LOANS 

Group exhibition: Abundant Futures
Venue: C3A Centro de Creación Contemporánea de Andalucía, Córdoba  
Curator: Daniela Zyman
Exhibition 1 April 2022 - 5 March 2023

Claudia Comte, “Artist Talk Claudia Comte" YouTube video, 57:30, posted by “Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary TBA21” May, 2021.

"After Nature, Claudia Comte, at Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza", posted by “Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary TBA21", 2021 

"Claudia Comte Talk, 2021 Verbier Art Summit", YouTube Video, posted by "Verbier Art Summit," 2021 

Claudia Comte, "2018 E.A.T. SIDE COUNTRY SIDE / Claudia Comte: From Grancy to Jayapura," posted by "Engadin Art Talks" February, 2018

Anna Tsing, Heather Swanson, Elaine Gan, Nils Bubandt, eds., Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet, The University of Minnesota Press. 2017
 

Born in Grancy, Switzerland, in 1983. Lives in Basel, Switzerland