Interview
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Claes Frowein
Claes Frowein is an artist of French, Dutch and Canadian nationality. He was born in 1988 in France as a son to international artist parents and grandparents, Marianne Caron-Frowein and Roger Caron. His life is very nomadic, and as a result he has had the opportunity to travel the world multiple times through international exhibitions and wildlife close to indigenous communities. This has allowed his consciousness to open up and project itself towards a new perspective of life.
Claes first started in auditory art, creating experimental and electroacoustic compositions produced under the name Bplrxxiii. 10 years later, his creativity seeks out new forms of expression through miniature painting and sculpture. He currently resides in Quebec and works part-time with autistic people, which is also a visual and aural inspiration.
Claes’ creative inspiration is an accumulation of his time and his spiritual journeys, merging the earthly tradition of the Western world and the indigenous spiritual tradition, in particular thanks to the traditional Amazonian medicine ayahuasca, of which he has been a follower since the age of 18.
What is your background and how did you start your journey in the art world?
“I have always been immersed in art. My mother had an international career in painting and in Aubusson tapestry, as well as my grandfather who imported the Aubusson tapestry in Canada. From a young age, I have known great artists in France before immigrating to Canada at the age of 16.
I never wanted to receive any technical and artistic instruction from my mother, (who had an art school in France at the time). I was able to really develop my own expression, with good precision in my creative research.
When I was 18 I discovered electronic music and I started to create techno pieces, then concrete pieces inspired by the insignificant sounds that surround us and the sounds of friction, as well as prenatal sound research. At the same time, I was drawing my album covers as well as very precise visions of what I had when I went to Peru to see my family in the jungle. They were black and white drawings and I always refused to insert colors until, following an energetic release that I suffered in Spain thanks to traditional Amazonian medicine, I decided to put some emphasis on it through use of colors in my life. I also decided to expand my creativity by putting aside the bizarre music I was producing in favor of large canvases and other sculpture or tapestry projects.”
What inspires you?
“I am greatly inspired by purity through meditated prayer; that of God. But my gestures are often very influenced by an invisible and parallel world inhabited by their spirits which interact in me, in my gestures, in my movements with the brush. I let them guide me when I paint but I always keep a very firm guideline: a naïve, even childish vision. For me, having a pure and clear mind is very important for inspiration, even with several personalities who sometimes haunt my actions.”
“I would describe my job as a continual search for the perfect creations. The ones that will resonate not only in my soul and my consciousness, but also in the multiple personalities that dwell in me.”
What themes do you pursue? Is there an underlying message in your work?
“There is always an important message in my designs. Sometimes it comes from me but sometimes it comes from my spiritual influences. My main message is a naïve echo of a return to purity, of listening to oneself and to God. The quest for truth is a constant of humanity, so often instinctively in my creations, this quest emerges in the messages that I want to convey while leaving a wide field of interpretation.”
Which artists influence you most?
“When I am painting, I let myself be influenced by the personalities who coexist in me and who are themselves very influenced by the music. So I switch from Gregorian and baroque music, to hard techno and IDM music.
Visually I like to observe work by great artists like Auguste Renoir, Paul Gauguin, Gustav Klimt or even da Vinci.”
“I believe that an artist is there to lift the veil of the invisible. Show us the underside of the cards. And sometimes even say out loud what others think quietly.”
What is your creative process like?
“I always create several canvases at the same time. Before each white canvas I take time for prayer. Then I start with some hard techno music to start the big gestures. Then through my actions I feel the arrival of entities that want to create. If I'm in a good mood I'll let them be. Otherwise I do nothing and I wait, looking silently into the void at this white wall of my studio. And the void ends up scaring me, so quickly enough I pick up the brush and the gestures come back by themselves.
Of the two, three or four canvases that I can create simultaneously, each will have a different style because I always leave a place for other personalities who want to express themselves. On the other hand, there is always a canvas that comes from myself, from my own soul. These are generally produced under baroque music and more detailed, less disturbing, less abstract too.”
Have you had any noteworthy exhibitions you'd like to share?
“I have a hard time with exhibits. I don’t participate in many because I have always felt a strong social ego through the openings, and that scares me.”
