“On the beach we have a pencil, but no other.“. Jben is an artist like no other. His preferred medium is not a sheet of paper, canvas or sculpture, but a natural element, the sand on the seashore. And in Rouen, in the Charente-Maritime, where he chose to express himself on that day, the tide forced him to complete a 50 meter wide portrait, which he had to make in less than four hours, commissioned by the world famous singer.
First of all, he has no room for error. Jben has only one try, and he won’t be able to crumple up his blank page, which will only be reset when the ocean rises, a few hours later. “There is a lot of stress“, he concedes. Like a runner, the artist combines small steps, shortness of breath and jerks in pace.”I’m always running after the tide“, he smiles. So he had to be cunning, to create certain objects himself that would allow him to express his art as accurately as possible, and, above all, without the risk of being crushed by the waves before it was completed.
gardener’s tools
If he’s not a runner, you might think he’s a gardener. The artist keeps his technique in the garden shed. A pen, a rake, two different claws, and tools he made himself, such as a compass. “I have set up a rope that I can unwind at my leisure.“, – he explains. A necessity when these works of art are several tens of meters long.
Jben has already made over 300. Among them is the spiral maze. “It wasn’t designed for that, but after all, there are a lot of people who own it and have fun.“, he explains. The rendering is still different and very impressive when filmed from above by a drone.
Since the public is full of enthusiasm, the artist devoted himself to the initiatory exercise. After drawing a few circles in the sand, the initiates must reproduce the sketch invented by Jben. “It is different from matter like sheet and paper.one of the newcomers remarks.We’re on something grainy here, so it’s not really necessarily just“He’s worried.
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In addition to the pressure associated with the speed required to do his job, Jben is aware that he develops in a dream setting. “It is completely soothing, we have the sound of the waves behind us, the wind, sometimes seagulls passing by, a whole that brings us back to simple things.“, he assures.
But the elements are not always with him. “Everything comes into play: the quality of the sand, the tide, the wind.“and even the sun, which”fresco gradually dries up”. All this can accelerate the ephemeral process – or “sea effect”, as the artist prefers to write.
His work impresses viewers who stop by and memorialize his work before it disappears. “He has a lot of stamina, because then it fades, there is not a trace left.“If not for these shots,” a passerby comments.
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