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“Space junk” which from afar resembles tiny paint specks, are debris left over by humans satellites that are now trapped into the universe. The debris have different scales depending on the point of view.
The shapes were inspired by the forms of actual debris, the paint specks laser cut on each shape represent the perception of space junk in the universe. The sculpture plays with lights and shadows to disorient the viewer.
DEBRIS
These works focus on debris accumulated on a surface.
The wood was carved to create the dimensional effect of the paint. It challenges the traditional ways of painting
The carving is very delicate in order to almost be perceived as a thin layer of paint. When looking closer at the carved areas, the wood grain becomes visible and creates a beautiful natural dynamic.
SABER'S BEADS
SABER'S BEADS
SABER'S BEADS
These works are inspired by the duality between dark and light alluding to an eclipse. Saber’s beads is the broken arc of illumination surrounding the moon. The gold has been carved with a laser cutter to be damaged and broken. They are references to the relationship between nature and humanity.
These works are inspired by the duality between dark and light alluding to an eclipse. Saber’s beads is the broken arc of illumination surrounding the moon. The gold has been carved with a laser cutter to be damaged and broken. They are references to the relationship between nature and humanity.
BIO
JOYCE BILLET (b. Paris, France) is a French-American artist and designer living and working in Miami, FL. Her background in architecture has encouraged her to play with material and textures in an effort to mix the sensations of painting and sculpture. By questioning material, process, and purpose, Billet's work presents a dialogue between the analog and the digital via themes surrounding nature, absence, and materiality. Drawing from organic entities, her process begins by capturing textures through photography and abstract paintings. Source materials are later translated to computer-generated formats which enables her to machine-cut and etch the work onto wood surfaces.
Central to Billet's practice is a desire to foster conversations about how humanity can coexist with nature while embracing technology. Adhering to a strong craft tradition, she employs plywood as her main material and challenges the evolutionary trajectory it has undergone in the process. Embodying each piece with value and meaning, the highly industrialized plywood, once stripped of identity and connection to nature, is repurposed in a second life. Its disposition to be etched, cut, and malleable while remaining organic ties Billet's practice back to nature from beginning to end.
In 2024, she was invited by the Miami Design District for a solo exhibition and ongoing residency, awarded a public art commission by Miami Art in Public Places for sculptural benches and canopies to be completed in late 2025, and commissioned by architect Peter Marino to create a large-scale permanent installation for the newly opened Dior flagship store in New York City.
Billet has also presented as a Special Project at Untitled Art Fair. Her work has been supported by Villa Albertine and the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs, and she has collaborated with institutions including Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, the Center for Subtropical Affairs, Exile Books, and Florida International University’s Robotics and Digital Fabrication Lab, where she teaches at the Art and Design Incubator.
CV
STATEMENT
I am interested in nature, raising awareness of destruction, absence and decay through the tension that exist between the analog and the digital.
While the works start painted by hand, the final pieces are computed, digital works. There is complexity in the technical process. Through programmatic steps, I hand paint monochromatic brushstrokes on canvas, and translate them into a different format so that they can be cut and etched. Although the drawing is programmed, there is a space between the initial painting and the way it materializes itself on the chosen surface allowing each piece to be unique.
Through tenacious curiosity the works lie between an essence of painting and sculpture, between wood and paper. The dialogue begins here by questioning the material, the process, and the purpose.
In translating the treatment of material from traditional approaches to their digital counterparts there is tension that invites conflict. Cutting, carving and perforating surfaces through burning with a machine reveals stress and collaboration between tradition and evolution.
Following a strong craft tradition, wood and its byproducts are the main materials used in my work. The disposition of a material to be etched, cut, malleable, and organic, ties to nature from beginning to end, involving my hand and tools challenging the evolution that wood has come to have.
I am interested in duality: positive and negative forms, presence and absence, darkness and light. Just as nature has textures, debris, deposits and layered materials I aim to evoke the dialogue between the natural and the digital.
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