Annick Geenen - Elusive Objects

Project Elusive Objects — photo series

Client Casimir

What makes this objects from furniture artist Casimir so fascinating to us? What is the secret of their seductive power, this magnetism that elicits people’s attention in the same way a representative specimen of the opposite sex (or, if appropriate, the same sex) will provoke innocent, yet irrepressible glances in an unguarded moment. Glances that have no consequences, expect perhaps in dreams. His objects are never aloof. They lure. And yet simultaneously they remain unmoved, withdrawn within their own self-contained, unapproachable identity. The game is seduction. Modest, reserved and unpretentious as his objects may be, at the same time they are physical, desirous and sensual. These objects aren’t polite nor well brought up, never mind boring or neutral. They manage to occupy two extremes of a spectrum at the same time. Their severity, clarity and utilitarianism label them as masculine. Their generosity, susceptibility and intimacy suggest that they might be feminine. Except that these objects slip away at any attempt to label them, to withdraw into undefinability. The word that best describes these objects is ‘elusive’.
Text Francis Smets, Philosopher