Martial Cherrier

Body Disaster

Martial Cherrier cannot be described as merely a photographer, artist or video artist, although in one way or another he employs all these art forms in his work. He is a sculptor who utilizes his own body as the basic material for his oeuvres.

In the early 90s Martial Cherrier took up bodybuilding to develop his body, and in due course people called him a living sculpture. Almost entirely remodelled, his body brings to mind the works of Michelangelo, or the superheroes in children’s comics. This body became the object of Cherrier’s creativity, a means to convey his ideas to the wider public. In this way Martial Cherrier is simultaneously the subject, object and depictive medium of his art. By self-exhibition Cherrier demonstrates how the creation of an ideal body is actually an excruciating struggle to conform to certain standards. Acceptance in modern society denotes complying with parameters pre-established by advertising.

‘Body Disaster’ is a series of photographic self-portraits taken at Venice Beach, Los Angeles, in 1994, the year Cherrier won his first bodybuilding title. For fifteen years they were stored in his father’s Normandy cellar, emerging in very poor condition. They were then scanned by the artist and reprinted in enlarged format with the title ‘Body Disaster’. Art critic and photo historian Dominique Baqué writes: ‘These images spell the end of the Californian dream and refer to Ancient Greek or Roman frescoes’.

The second Cherrier project on display was specially produced for the Photobiennale 2014. In his composition entitled ‘Blue White Red 2014’ Cherrier plays with symbols, evoking the colours of the French Republic.