Whether it be collages or installations, the work by Thomas Boulmier seems motivated by a sole intention, to restate the symbolic contents of the elements he manipulates. His collages, made of pages’ coagulation from different and heterogeneous editions, slowly build a catalogue which meaning is blurred. He produces furniture and trinkets layouts of all kinds and has them appear as objects of contemplation which meaning stays out of the viewer’s reach. By putting them together, finding them new places to fit within sets specifically designed for them, Thomas Boulmier offers the images or the objects a new apprehension mode.

He intervenes where meaning is at stake. And actually, it entails some sort of consideration for those objects that are extracted from their original environment. Within their natural context they obey to one meaning or function which bear no possible doubt. Once extracted from that environment, they loose their original meaning. Thomas Boulmier offers them a new one that is much less normalized.
Thus, his work is marked with doubt as regards to reality and the relationship one bears with it. As a matter of fact, if representation involves some distance from the world, to directly act on it may confuse the viewer’s apprehension.

Text : François Aubart