Saint-Jean-de-Boiseau
“Capitaine Cat”
Alain Séchas
Sculptor and drawing artist, Alain Séchas made his name with his cats, a recurring design in his work since 1996.
“These cats play every role and throw them at us unrestrictedly and on all grounds: sex, invectives, fantasy, the role of art, black humour, social behaviours, desire or fear of the other. Human failings are the foundations of the artist’s success. He merrily draws his inspiration from them and the source is rich indeed unending. Martian of everyday life, sleepwalker in single file, sexy superwoman or little star in flowery leggings, he caricatures us with fluidity, naturally, implacable”. Marc Sanchez.
At Saint-Jean-de-Boiseau, Alain Séchas seizes History and uses the three submerged masts of the Antarktis, a 15-tonne Norwegian tanker sunk during a scuttling in 1944, to create a fountain. This fountain is really remarkable, it evokes the “Christ and the two thieves” scene and at the same time the drowning of the sailors… Like roadside crosses transformed in cats spitting out water.
The very peculiar story of this site was not lost on the artist: at the end of the Second World War, whilst the Loire was cluttered up with German and allied wrecks, there were gathered and sunk at this place. An artificial island formed there and was then named “Bikini Island”, in reference to the first American nuclear tests in the Pacific atoll.
— Œuvre réalisée pour Estuaire 2007 grâce au soutien de Suez, Partenaire Officiel, avec l’appui technique de Diluvial, Partenaire Services.