Umea, Sweden-based Isabelle Desjeux both defies labels and is prepared to use them to make her point. She trained as a molecular biologist, obtaining a PhD in 1995. However, in 2000, she decided to turn full-time to art. Starting from self-teaching, she obtained an MA in Fine Art from Lasalle College of the Arts, Singapore and the Open University, U.K. in 2010. Now, she defines herself as an artist-educator-researcher—but even this label only gives a hint at the broad spectrum of activities in which she is engaged.
Art, education and science
Isabelle’s art has taken a wide variety of forms over the last ten to fifteen years. She has engaged in print-making and papier-mâché, expressive figure drawing, videos, installations and performative art. At the core of all her work is a belief in the power of transformation over creation. She has a strong focus on reusing discarded material and recycling in all her work, both practice and teaching. Her research, too, is focused on what she describes as the ‘waste’ or ‘failures’, and their function in the process of scientific research. She believes that learning to fail is a crucial part of the scientific process.
Over the years, Isabelle’s approach has become more participative, collective, and open to communities to engage with. Her most recent projects bring together art and science. They include a botany project with local primary schools, an Insect Inventorium, and a project called ‘From Lab to Lawn, Everyone Can Be a Scientist’. She emphasises that she is keen to ‘get science out of the lab’ and make it more accessible to everyone, not just scientists. Her projects therefore enable participation in scientific experiments in unusual settings—think replacing the lab bench with the tool bench, for example. Her work as an educator is all about finding ways to engage curious minds through experimentation and permission to fail. She also believes that it is part of her role to help scientists to communicate better—and this certainly seems vital in a world where people distrust science more and more but lack the tools to experiment themselves.
Residencies and curiosity
Isabelle is artist-in-residence at Blue House International Preschool, and also runs L’Observatoire, an artist residency programme at the Blue House. L’Observatoire invites various groups and communities to embark on a journey of ‘(re)-discovery’ via art-making and simple ‘tinkering’. The purpose of these journeys is to develop curiosity awareness in communities. The idea behind the project is to develop a more symbiotic relationship between local artists and the school community.
During a one-month residency at the studio at L’Observatoire, artists are free to experiment as much as they wish. They are expected, however, to contribute to the Blue House school community in some way. This might be through a workshop with the children, or informal presentation to the teachers, or even engaging the children in an experiment. The focus of each residency is very much on the process and experience, rather than a finished piece of work. This is in keeping with Isabelle’s interest in failure and experimentation. Isabelle acts as both host and mentor for the project, providing practical support and acting as a sounding board for each artist to discuss their ideas.
Our partnership with Isabelle
Isabelle’s work is therefore hugely interesting, and has potential to have significant impact on how people think. What, though, is she doing working with us, and what are we getting out of the partnership?
Isabelle has been part of the our community since 2007. She has illustrated several projects, providing a very different ‘take’ from stock photographs or website themes. However, she provides far more input than just illustration. She has also attended our roundtables over the last few years because of the different perspective that she provides. Her views on the vital impact of curiosity, the importance of thinking about methodology, and the value of failure have all helped thought leaders and marketers to see the balance between chaos and predictability.
As Isabelle often reminds us – artists observe and scientists question. She adds to that the view that children play—and that educators need to bring all three together. She excels at doing this for the our community. It is never a bad thing to have your world view turned upside down briefly, or to see boundaries such as those between art and science blurred. Isabelle provides those insights for many of our clients, as well as keeping the core team creative and innovative in its thinking processes.