EXHIBITION WYOMING

As a rule, the duo confronts the challenges of materiality with creative solutions. “We were able to give each other such support. It elevated us, every time… When one person would sort of get down a bit, the other person would just lift the other one. It was absolute magic,” says Michèle. “The ideas to make things and to just do things really flowed so naturally between us.” Stainless steel, for one, is not often poured at such a large scale. The material is too hot for a mold, like those used to cast bronze. BibiMichèle came up with a casting process using sand as the material for the mold. The result is this fabulously sexy, conceptual mind-bender or an indoor-outdoor sculpture that is The Tit.

The title of the exhibition refers to the way the two sculptors, united as one, bridge the generational void, creating contemporary but timeless work. Michèle notes, in her poetic tone, “Time is an illusion but a real challenge of everyday life. This body of work represents this conflict.”

Michèle Dieters was schooled in Switzerland and spent a year in Rome studying Art History. She then traveled to a kibbutz in Israel, her stay cut short by the Yom Kippur War, where she was trapped in a bomb shelter for several weeks. Fascinated from an early age by stonework, Michèle’s youthful dreams were answered when she was awarded a two-year apprenticeship with acclaimed sculptor, Nico Onkenhout. Thereafter she studied sculpture at the London Art Schools City and Guilds and welding with the London Polytechnic, followed by two years with the New York National Academy and another two immersed in the stone quarries of Italy. Returning to the Netherlands with her growing family, Michèle established her studios in Utrecht and le Chambon, in France. Commissions began flowing in for companies and collectors, but it would be years before she would fulfill the continuation of the artistic persona who is BibiMichèle.