Sculpture by Sandrine Plante-Rougeol

Meet Sandrine Plante-Rougeol

For the first time, familyevasion interviewed an artist, Sandrine Plante-Rougeol, from a distance.

Striking sculptures and moving sharing through a few answers given. 

The Memory wants to be on the way, founder of that which is built … 

Freeze on images and breathe on the words.

What was your background before sculpture ?

Born March 31, 1974 in the Center of France, I am Zoréole. 

Born to a Reunionese father and a mother from Puy de Dôme, two volcanic areas (like me !). 

I started sculpting at the age of 8, so I’ve been modeling and sculpting for 37 years! I was self-taught for a long time. 

Then undertook studies: bac ‘plastic arts’, faculty ‘history of art’, apprenticeship in sculpture in Rome (pupil of Paul Belmondo who had made 8 years of sculpture conservatory in Paris), school of stone cutting and architecture then finally internships in Italy before settling in Auvergne. 

Why is the time of slavery central to your works ?

Sandrine Plante-Rougeol’s field I am descended from slaves or should I rather say enslaved humans. I have chosen to carry out a duty of memory to pay homage to them and restore dignity to these women, children and men, stolen from Africa, separated and sold. 

This is how all of my creation is called “Stolen Lives”. I speak of them on their lands, in the catches, separations, sales, slave traders, the bottom of the sea and at the plantation. Even creating a traceability of the life of some of my characters. 

How are your figurative sculptures, reminiscent of the past, seen in a rather futuristic era ? 

My sculptures are very well received by the public, touched by the expressions.

Note also that I am working on the “one” scale, that is to say human scale which creates a direct link between what we look at and what we are. I work with places of memory, public places and museums. 

All types of art can be mixed and I think figurative art still has its place.

My creation’s “mission” is to educate the younger generations, to tell without hatred part of the history that we carry within us. The fact of having sculptures exhibited in many places, the exchanges on social networks with people from all countries who encourage my creation and are sensitive to it, is very touching.

It would be like trying to transform the chains of shackles into human chains of solidarity, so that this scourge is not reproduced.

I also give courses to transmit this memory.

The material chosen as a support, does terracotta provide an answer in itself ?

But what better material could I use ?

Mother earth carries us, the earth nourishes us, chooses to revive or die all vegetation. 

This is where we come from and where we end … It is fragile and strong at the same time… 

I mainly work with a black earth, very volcanic, powerful and perfect to tell this dark and shiny skin. I also work with the resin after molding of my sculptures which I make in 20 copies, for convenience of weight and affordability to the art.

Are not the pain and the horror to be forgotten ? 

So why embody them ?

Excellent question … the horror for me would be to forget them, to do as they never existed. Horror is here every day before our eyes, so how do we close them ? 

To tell them is to campaign without a sign in the street, with my creation as only weapon … 

To embody them is to remember where we came from. And that’s a great source of pride for me.

Practical sheet of Sandrine Plante-Rougeol

Figurative sculptor in the Puy de Dôme.

Address: Atelier à BILLOM, 12 Bis liberation street.

Website https://www.sculpteur-sandrineplanterougeol.com