Tressage 

François Rouan created "Tressage" with what appears to be a meticulous layering of paint to conjure a woven surface. The artwork presents a visual field of vertical stripes in alternating hues of whites and muted pinks and purples. These colours, combined with the textured execution, offer a calming, almost hypnotic, effect. Rouan’s process is rooted in structuralist concerns. The title “Tressage,” evokes weaving, suggesting a deeper engagement with how individual components intertwine to form a complex whole. Each brushstroke, like a thread, contributes to the overall pattern. The regularity of the pattern invites a semiotic reading. The stripes could be seen as signs, arranged in a system that generates meaning through repetition and variation. Rouan challenges fixed meaning by creating a surface that appears both ordered and organic, structured yet painterly. The artist destabilizes traditional notions of representation by focusing on the materiality of the paint and the act of creation. This challenges us to see beyond the surface.