"It is the uncertainty that charms one.
A mist makes things wonderful. "
- Oscar Wilde -
As an engraver artist, I practice the techniques of intaglio engraving, embossing as well as the punchcutting. These different engraving processes all have the purpose of printing an imprint on paper.
When I engrave I try to capture atmospheres celebrating the natural world, shedding light on its hidden recesses, exploring the silences. My aim is to leave sufficient room for the unknown or the unseen to appear. The dream process does the rest.
The passing of time leaves a poetic trace, there is something powerful in the erosion of matter, something sacred in that which is lost.
The images created in my work are like maps that guide you towards this otherworld.
© Edouard Elias
Graduated from a DMA * engraving at the Estienne school in 2008, and a License in business creation in the arts and crafts, I made my apprenticeship with the engraver Jean-Luc Seigneur specializing in embossing.
I then taugh intaglio in a Parisian workshop and learned the impression of embossing within the company Creanog.
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Following this wealth of experience, I opened a printmaking workshop in northern Finistère, offering series of prints about nature & time. Sensitive to the idea that the print is nothing more than an imprint, in other words a fragment of memory.
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Simultaneously Nelly Gable, punchcutter at the French National printing office, proposed me to learn a rare craft, the engraving of typographic punches. This transmission took place within the framework of the Masters of Art & Students system set up and managed by the Ministry of Culture and INMA (National Institute of Crafts).
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Then we produced together the book "drawing of movement", published by Les Cendres and with the support of INMA. This book is the result of our interwoven experiences, of our feelings as engravers, one writing to remember and the second drawing so as not to forget the movement.
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Today & echoing my engraved work, I contribute to highligting the importance and conservation of typographic punches, a profession recently listed on the Inventory of french intangible cultural heritage.​
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* Arts and crafts diploma
