About
Formerly a development programme officer in Asia for the United Nations, then editor of the intercultural magazine Caravane, distributed in 130 countries; now a sculptor in wood, stone and earth working and living on the Ile d’Oléron.
I draw my inspiration from nature: clay from Puisaye and the Sahara, limestone from Burgundy, marble and serpentine from the southern Alps, wood found in the forests and gardens I walk through…
I’m inspired by the arts and cultures I’ve discovered on my travels, particularly in Asia, but also in Africa and throughout Europe.
I draw my inspiration from this fascinating, sometimes disturbing, journey; from the life of a being on Earth in our troubled times, torn between many reasons for indignation and many reasons for hope.
In pictures
Using words
Being ready to leave, to hope and to love
Contemplating the night sky, head backwards, until your neck breaks, and mingling with the stars. Kicking the anthill of our prejudices and principles to set out again to conquer our capacity to think.
Looking at, seeing and touching Philippe Ardy’s sculptures implies all this. Each piece invites us into the poetry of engagement. We find ourselves travelling in the imprints of tools, in the traces of life.
The artist loves human beings and their wounds, materials and their fragility. He plays on the register of derision, gentleness and flesh. The mockery of the passage of time on our spoilt childish whims. The gentleness of senses awakened beyond words… When the curves of her body defy the desire for peace.
To wander your eyes, your hands and your emotions over her sculptures, you have to be ready to leave, to hope and to love.
Philippe Ardy incorporates the link between memory and a universe bursting with promise, using his scissors to the rhythm of his breathing. Like a whirling dervish, he spins, taking us on a journey between the sexes, between nature and man, commitment and humility, matter and energy, brain and soul.
Philippe Ardy puts us on stage. His sculptures are our audience.
Muriel André, journalist
Fraternity for our Planet
Made of stone or wood, Philippe Ardy’s sculptures invite you to caress them.
In the centre of the Grange du Prieuré in La Ferté Loupière, carved out of a charred yew tree, two hands hold a marble sphere. It’s the future of man, an image of fraternity to save our planet…
Philippe Ardy takes us on a journey of distant lands and carnal encounters. The sculptor wrote: “I want to proclaim that art and culture have always offered a future to a world that knows so well how to lose itself. So much war and misery in a world of plenty will always seem to me to be an insult to the human spirit”.
From one work to the next, we wander between sensual curves and primitive forms, between African inspirations and tributes to nature. The magnificent Oiseaux d’Arz, carved from pearwood, stretch their slender silhouettes skywards.
Further on, we can see images of the work produced by the artist during a residency in Timimoun in the Algerian Sahara: sand, light and baked clay spheres.
Trinkah Guerrah
Works produced
Mainly round-bodied sculptures in wood of all kinds (poplar, lime, elm, oak, pear, walnut, ash, cedar, cherry, sequoia, Lambert cypress, maritime pine, acacia, etc.), but also faces or figures in limestone, marble or serpentine, as well as sculptures in clay fired in self-built wood-fired ovens.
A Land Art installation created in the Algerian Sahara at Timimoun during a two-month creative residency in 2006: creation of spheres made of raw local clay fired on site in an oven with reversed flames, set in the desert environment (palm grove, sebkhra, great western erg).
Selected for the AMERS 2016 International Biennial – Art & Nature on Oléron on the theme “Refuge”: Creation of a “Maritime Sphere” made of beached wood, 3.60 m in diameter, firmly moored at the southern tip of the island of Oléron (Gatseau beach opposite the Maumusson channel). In situ from 1 July to 18 September 2016. Acquired by the Château d’Oléron Town Hall and since exhibited on the ramparts of the Citadel.
Creation in 2019 of ‘Joueur de Planète’, Lavoux stone, h: 1.70m, 1.2 tonnes. On permanent display on the forecourt of the Citadelle Vauban in Château d’Oléron.
Exhibitions and awards
« Les Sarabandes », Rouillac
« Un jardin, un artiste », Mauves sur Loire
Biennale internationale AMERS 2016 – Art & Nature sur Oléron Bastion Royal de la Citadelle du Château d’Oléron
Galerie L’Artsenal, Bayonne
Le Fournil, Moutiers en Puisaye
La chapelle d’Avigneau, Escamps
Galerie des créacteurs, Saint Sauveur en Puisaye
Journées des Métiers d’Art
Galerie Thuiller, Paris III
Galerie Chok’Art, Vermenton
L’Ocrerie, Auxerre
Maison des Fleurs, des Arts et de la Poésie, Dracy
« Art dans les cours et jardins », Saint Sauveur
Musée Colette, Saint Sauveur en Puisaye
2ème Biennale Intale de Sculpture Contemporaine, Nolay
La Grange du Prieuré, La Ferté Loupière
Résidence de création à Timimoun, Sahara algérien
Galerie Acanthe, La Ferté Loupière
Académie des Arts de Gournay sur Marne, 1st prize for sculpture 2007