The Flâneur

The Flâneur is a body of work taking inspiration from observing, engaging and working with found  materials. Considering how these materials behave, what they make you think about and what they are able to say. The practice of collecting the materials, every bit as important as the final works. It also question how personal thoughts can become public and how trains of thought can be demonstrated. Taking inspiration from the French term ‘Flâneur’, referring to an ambivalent figure of urban riches representing the ability to wander detached from society with no other purpose than to be an acute observer of society. The flâneur was, first of all, a literary type from 19th-century France, essential to any picture of the streets of Paris. The word carried a set of rich associations: the man of leisure, the idler, the urban explorer, the connoisseur of the street. Particularly poignant, as this collection of mixed-media works, are made from materials collected from the west coast of France, therefore directly referencing the historical figure of the flâneur.