Michel de Broin, John K Grande
Border Crossing Magazine
Étant Donnés, 2013
Michel de Broin’s art is rife with sensory ambiguities. A slight attenuation of our conventional association with objects that appear functional, renders them poetic. De Broin’s unusual and exhuberant dislocation of association blends seduction with an art of resistance. Part Duchampian, overtly conceptual, de Broin plays on and with the pragmatism that forms a central feature of contemporary society’s consumer ethos. Then he gives it a twist. With a work like Bleed, a power drill sits on its side spouting water. The Great Encounter has refrigerators interlocked, as if embracing each other. With Trompe, a rifle spirals inwardly, turning on itself. These are awkward conjunctions, and conflict is part of the language, whether overt violence, or simply challenging the way the object works.