Antoine Orand transforms “beautiful ideas into melodies” through drawing

Antoine Orand utilises drawing as a way to record his surroundings. He observes abstracted shapes in his line of sight, plotting them with a thin black line then prescribing bold colours to the composition, often through Risograph printing. Based between Brussels, Belgium and Marseille, Antoine does not consider himself an illustrator “because I don’t really see what I am illustrating” he tells It’s Nice That. “For now, I am drawing,” he continues on his visually intuitive practice, “I am trying to build books that I want to see. I don’t want to communicate as I don’t have enough to say.”

Recently exhibiting three new publications at LA Art Book Fair last month, Antoine’s latest works explore the monopoly of manufactured objects in our daily lives. Claires Fontaines, Sabre and Alterego document Antoine’s latest interpretations on the matter through flat and colourful drawings. Influenced by Robert Smithson’s texts such as A Tour of the Monuments and New Jersey, Antoine’s latest output marks a pointed shift towards the realms of sci-fi, leaving behind a past drawing style that was more descriptive in its nature.

In Sabre, published by Mega Press, the French artist documents a series of visual experiments. Reminiscent of industrial technical drawings, Antoine’s compositions encapsulate European packaging design with populist illustration. With this unique aesthetic, Antoine confronts his environment, intuitively recording certain aspects of his daily endeavours on paper which he then organises and curates.

“I want to (and still want to) capture the bigger picture,” says Antoine “but I know the world is too big for me and so I have to compartmentalise it through drawing.” It’s Antoine’s own way of processing the world around him and a sort of enforced strategy so he does not “drown completely”. He starts with the most simple forms to draw which are “less complex and sensible” for the artist to jot down. “Someday, I expect nature will come back into my work when I feel I can draw it. Right now, I’m only able to draw the human figure in a caricaturist’s way: cruel, sexual and as pathetic figures.”

Ultimately intending to create books that do not exist at the moment, Antoine’s goal is to invoke synaesthesia with his books. By hearing colour or seeing a song within the composition of his work, the French creative hopes he can transform the most beautiful of ideas into a melody.