10 Questions with Philippe Chevalier (Philoxerax)

Philippe Chevalier (whose artist name is Philoxerax) is a French digital artist. He was born in Paris in 1965 and now resides in Bordeaux, France. He started painting in 1990, when he graduated from the prestigious Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs de Paris, France. (ENSAD).

As early as 1995, Philippe grew interested in using computers as creative tools. Back then, computers that could display 256 colors cost a fortune, so Philippe worked nights at Apple France and used their hardware to create his first digital works. Meanwhile, he also created frescoes all over the world to earn a living.
Philippe’s passion for computers continued to grow, and in 1998, he learned to program. For twenty years, he created video games, websites, and online applications.

Today, Philippe returns to where he left off 20 years ago. Combining his skills as a programmer and an artist, he has given up brushes, pencils, pastels, but also the shapes and lights captured by a camera or an artistic gesture. The materials for his new works are mathematical formulas and dimensionless geometric objects called fractals.
Using fractals, this 100% digital material, Philippe creates images that have no size. Despite their complexity and the richness of their colored textures, the compositions are displayed at any scale without alteration.

www.philoxerax.com | @philoxerax

ARTIST STATEMENT

His artworks expose the fascinating worlds where life works in secret. Microbes, cells, seeds. These tiny worlds have always intrigued him. Buried in the heart of nature, it is where life works in silence and prepares to unfold. He had always wanted to capture these abstract energies, which are compositions of forces that oppose and balance each other.

Using fractals, he assembles them, superimposes them, interweaves them to obtain new compositions, images never seen before, which evoke those tiny and secret worlds. Paradoxically, in the very heart of nature, we encounter fractal shapes: in the spirals of shells, ice crystals, the arrangement of sand dunes, or the spreading of tree branches.

In a few artworks, Philippe also approaches the subject of spirituality, this particular link that can be established between our mind and something larger. Philippe has been practicing meditation for decades.

With his work, Philippe wishes to emphasize how all the life around us is incredibly sophisticated, beautiful, and precious.

INTERVIEW

First of all, tell us a little more about your background, and how did you begin making art?

I don't have a classic career as an artist, even though I have the background. I graduated from the prestigious Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs de Paris, France in 1990.
From 1990 to 2000, I developed my first artistic research in painting, using traditional techniques (pastels, oils, inks, etc.). 
As early as 1993, I had a growing interest in using computers as a creative tool. Back then, computers that could display 256 colors cost a fortune, so I worked night shifts at Apple France to create my first digital works.I painted murals all over the world to make a living, because I wasn't looking to show my work as an artist. In 1998, I will learn to program as an autodidact. This is the beginning of interactive CD-ROMs and video games. I will then become a developer. For 20 years, I will complete more than 30 professional digital projects, some of them as an entrepreneur.

We can say you are among the first people that started working with digital art and computers. How did you choose this medium and what inspired you to follow this path?

As soon as the first computers arrived on the consumer market, I got interested. Even though they were very basic at the time, displaying only a few hundred colors on very low definition screens, I was fascinated by their creative potential.
In the beginning, I decided to reproduce the paintings I used to do in pastel or oil. I was using the first version of Photoshop and a mouse that kept getting clogged up. It was terribly tedious, and frequently, the computer crashed before I could save my work.
Gradually, I turned to programming because I wanted to know more about what was going on behind the screen. Programming opened up a whole new world of creation for me. In addition to the two classic dimensions of a still image, I suddenly had the possibility to play with time (animation) and interactivity. With these 4 dimensions at my fingertips, my work progressively turned towards video games. Finally, the interest in programming became so important that I put aside the artistic aspect to work on online applications for 20 years.

Can you tell us about the process of creating your work? What aspect of your work do you pay particular attention to?

Today, it is 100% through digital that I resume my artist's work. I have given up brushes, pencils, pastels, but also the shapes and lights captured by a camera or an artistic gesture. The materials of my new work are mathematical formulas and dimensionless geometric objects called fractals. I assemble them, superimpose them, interweave them to obtain new compositions, images never seen before, which are so many sketches or open doors on unexplored worlds. 
While working on fractals, I am mainly looking to create new images and a shape vocabulary that will inspire me for a future project in virtual reality.

Where do you find inspiration for your work?

Our senses are limited. Each of them perceives a fragment of reality. Our mind reassembles these fragments to build our own world, which we have the illusion that it is outside of us, same for all and complete.
Below and beyond our sensorial perceptions, other realities are operating. Some of them have been revealed thanks to the technologies that enhance our senses. Others are suspected, and some still remain inaccessible.
From the activity of a cell to that of a star, due to gravity or photosynthesis, through the infinite complexity of neural networks up to the experience of spirituality, the horizon quickly becomes a mystery in each of these directions.
My artistic work, started 30 years ago, evokes these mysteries and the necessity of their continuous presence, here and now, for our existences to be possible.
More globally, this approach is part of a will to emphasize how all the life around us is incredibly sophisticated, beautiful and precious.

You have a long career. How did you maintain a cohesive style?

Surprisingly, whatever techniques I used (inks, pastels, oils, 2D or 3D digital images, video), it is always the same world of shapes and colors that reappears in front of me.
It seems that this coherence exists in spite of myself. By sometimes radically changing techniques, as with fractals today, I try to change my vocabulary of forms, my color palette, my style. I am constantly fighting against a certain kind of comfort that would push me to always do a little bit of the same thing, and, however, it comes back naturally.
My favorite part is when, all of a sudden, something appears in front of me that I have never seen before, and that opens up a whole new space for exploration. But this is not so frequent.

How much planning goes into each artwork?

By working with the fractal material, I have an immense space of exploration in front of me, and that's what interests me. Nothing is premeditated. My work consists of exploring where a fractal-like naturalist photographer would go into a deep forest, looking for a new form or composition. Sometimes I find something interesting, so I shoot and save it. Then I return to these raw images to adjust the colors and shapes into more expressive compositions. But with fractals, as for a photographer, I can't invent. I have to work with what appears in front of me. I can't create anything myself. It is interesting. This exploratory work is the first step of an ambitious virtual reality project.

Do you have a role model that you've drawn inspiration from when creating your art?

Some so many artists have inspired me throughout my work. In general, I am very sensitive to classical painting. In particular, when I recognize in the artist the essential qualities of a true painter, which are for me this will to show the beauty of the world.

Monet first, Fra Angelico, Gauguin, through Fantin Latour, Fragonard, Bosh or Turner, Bonnard, and Andrew Wyeth or Gerhard Richter, all these artists amaze me every day time. Bram Van Velde has greatly inspired my work.

What are you working on now, and what are your plans for the future? Anything exciting you can tell us about?

By creating still images using fractals, I am building a mental world. This research already allows me to imagine an original, rich, and complex world that I will be able to build in 3D using virtual reality technologies. I operate like an architect who uses sketches to help him progressively elaborate the complete vision of the building.
These virtual reality spaces, called "artrooms", will be interactive. The visitor will be able to explore them as well as to be immersed/submerged by the animated scenery, which can even change according to his behavior.  
For a single visitor, they will offer soothing immersive content where they can recharge their batteries, as opposed to other anxiety-provoking digital content currently produced by the industry. The visitor will also have the opportunity to share this experience with friends. The art rooms will then become places of sharing and encounters.
This ambitious art project is intended to help our minds recharge by immersing them in an intense virtual experience of beauty.

Have you ever thought about turning to NFTs? What are your thoughts on this subject?

From my point of view, NFTs have more to do with business than with art. And I must admit that I don't know much about business. So, I have no idea where this NFT gold rush will lead us.
Regarding art and new technologies, I am much more attracted by virtual reality, which by its creative potential, seems to be promised to become the new playground of artists, even if the technical skill level remains very high.

And finally, how do you see your art evolving in the next five years?

Today, video games, movies, and the web produce the cultural content that massively impacts the general public. In addition, these industries expose the minds of young generations to content that is often violent or anxiety-provoking in an intensive way. This repeated process shapes their perceptions and their thoughts, and therefore ultimately the world they will build.

Art has not been able to grasp the underlying technologies of video games, cinema and the web to produce alternative and equal quality content to that of the industry. And for this reason, it has remained confined to an elitist niche, far from the general public.

Virtual reality is undoubtedly the new technology that will carry the culture of tomorrow. It is time for artists to grasp these complex technologies to propose something more beautiful. This is the role of art and I want to be part of this new adventure.