The Observer
Too blue, too deep, too dark we sank — Julien Creuzet, Camden Arts Centre
Works by the French-Caribbean artist Julien Creuzet are on display in his first major UK show since winning Camden Art Centre’s emerging artist prize at the 2019 Frieze art fair. Creuzet, 34, grew up in Martinique and now lives in Paris. His practice encompasses sculpture, wall-based works and digital films, but here, it’s free-standing and suspended sculptures that take precedence.
From the show’s lengthy title alone – “Too blue, too deep, too dark we sank, meandering every moving limb. In the den, in the womb. Too bèlè, too gwo-ka, too biguine, too compas, too kadans, too calypso, too mazurka, too makossa, in my joyful sadness (…)” – it’s clear that Creuzet is preoccupied with language (Derek Walcott and Linton Kwesi Johnson feature in the reading list of the exhibition’s File Notes). Though more poetic than expository, the title does hint at the show’s themes: the sea, musicality, the Caribbean, colonisation.
Blistering reds, greens and yellows are the first thing to strike you, especially on an icy January day. Creuzet turns the space into a kaleidoscope of colours and patterns, but it’s the twisted configurations of the sculptures that are the most compelling; they look like relatives in conversation with each other. All these asymmetrical forms, resembling everything from knobbly skeletal bones and architectural frameworks to coats of armour, are made from found objects – plastic, metal, wiring, rope, carpet, synthetic plants and torn fabric.
It’s hard not to see Creuzet’s work as symbolic renderings of Caribbean islands whose histories overlap but whose postcolonial identities are still distinctive. We derive from it…, a large suspended sculpture whose shape reflects the insignia on various Caribbean flags, is engrossing, but these works function better when viewed as a collection.
Drifting between the sculptures, music by the French-Senegalese singer Anaiis fills the gallery with an ethereal energy. A new film by Creuzet shows a digital figure dancing in the traditional bèlè style that evolved on Martinique after colonial rule.