A transfer is a painting restoration technique that involves placing the paint layer of a canvas onto a new support. This operation is used as a last resort when the previous support and/or its preparation are defective, and when reattachment or any other form of consolidation is not feasible. It is an extreme and irreversible solution, to be carried out with great care.
I was fortunate to learn and carry out this operation on a canvas by the Norman painter Jacques Pasquier alongside my grandfather. He passed on his knowledge, which he himself had learned from his father, also a painting restorer. Transmission, lineage, and memory are fundamental concepts in my practice.
I draw an analogy between the damaged support of a painting and the loss of memory of an event or lived experience. The transfers I have made aim to enclose, within the weave of the fabric, the remnants of this incomplete memory.
This new support, delicate in its installation and raw in its appearance, allows the image to be held in the hands. To touch it, manipulate it, and connect these lived spaces together. The image is deteriorated, the weave of the canvas prevails over the memory, but by imprisoning it, it halts its destruction.