WHY SEMAJ ?
AS ARTIST’S NAME
The latter happens to be an anagram of James, in memory to James JOYCE, this writer and Irish poet who maintained sulphurous exchanges with the one who was going to become his wife, Nora.
Semaj also finds his foundations in the following approaches :
– in the australian slang, Semaj means “fuck”, in every sense of the word mean,
– the number corresponding to this first name is 3, synonym for stability but also symbolism of 3 points determining a plan,
– his interpretation is “creative”, “sociable”, “curious” and “joyful”.
HIS ARTISTIC VISION
Semaj rest was very attached to the individual, to the exchanges, but what speaks to him most, they are prohibitions. Not only those who are imposed by societies or religions, but prohibitions that each of us let us stand out ourself. It is this fabulous confrontation between our desires, our fantasies and our famous prohibitions, that awakens in us this imbalance of felt which Semaj wishes to highlight with its works, by trying to introduce to public this questioning which remains in purpose very personal.
Techniques and used materials are highly varied, mixing the photography, digital art, the acrylic, the collage, on diverse supports, such as the corrugated cardboard and the aluminum. These supports, beyond the restored image, also present a materiality close to the imprint, as if its wish was to mark the spirits.
The used images are, if they are not extracted from the press, realized by Semaj himself. This allows him to go to the closest to the questioning which he wishes to introduce, by integrating it his felt staff.
THE BIOGRAPHIC ELEMENTS
Semaj was born in 1963 and is French.
He is of scientific training, what makes him curious about any new technology. But his domain of expression is and will stay that of the visual arts, the painting, the photography, the digital arts …
His main approach is essentially connected to the sharing of an emotion, a feeling. Make pass felt staffs, the societal felt, in the field of the visible, of the tangible. To everyone to read them with his own philosophy, with its personal “background” of life, with its prohibitions, with his availability and its own open-mindedness.
Two paintings are in the archives of the National Museums of France, that one of Brunoy in Paris region more exactly. These two artworks are a part of the abstract period from the artist.
But if Semaj had to speak to you about its major works today, he would bring you unmistakably towards :
– the polyptych of the CONTRAINTES, 16 paintings on corrugated cardboard,
– the triptych NORA,
– the DEMOISELLES D’ICI…
