Romane Charlot – Installation & Sculptural Light Practice

Romane Charlot develops installations composed of luminous glass sculptures positioned between object, instrument and machine. Working primarily with colored glass and metal structures, she activates light as a structural element rather than an atmospheric effect. Her works reorganize space through projection, reflection and shadow, producing temporary constellations that shift with the viewer’s movement.

Her practice draws on early optical devices and image technologies, as well as systems associated with spectacle and labor. The sculptures function individually yet gain clarity when assembled, forming collective arrangements that operate like silent systems of coordination. Each element contributes to a shared spatial logic. Activation remains possible, but not necessary; the works hold tension between potential performance and suspended stillness.

Rooted in a memory of working class culture from Northern France, Charlot’s installations reference collective production, repetition and manual gestures. Materials guide decisions in an intuitive process she describes as bricolage. Craft and industrial logic remain deliberately unresolved. The result is not nostalgic reconstruction but a structured negotiation between light, labor and shared form.

ÇA TOURNE - By Aurore Forray

Conceived as a jam session, a short performance is performed by several artists who activate objects crafted by the artist. A gentle poetry unfolds as a performer rings a glass bell, followed by the rhythm of a metronome.

Each instrument affects the others and alters the dynamics of the sound piece. Thus, the specific characteristics of the sounds become integrated into the choreography, from which emerges a melody that is both controlled and improvised.

Romane Charlot creates objects inspired by everyday life, combining steel and stained glass, sometimes blowing glass. Like an inventor, she exploits the translucent aspect of the material to allow light and color to move through space. The spotlights placed on the ground refract irregular shapes, suggesting shadow puppetry. While the light is fixed, the artworks themselves are in motion. The simple mechanisms give them a handcrafted look, like the circular support, which evokes certain proto-cinema techniques.

When a ball takes on the size of a balloon, the change of scale reinforces the humorous effect of its approach. Like a cabinet of curiosities, the prototypes of objects in progress are arranged on shelves. Deploying a dreamlike universe at a fairground event, Romane Charlot deliberately immerses us in childhood.

Aurore Forray Text written for the Finale edition, l'Art La Vie Et Inversement

Instagram Romane Charlot

Notable Artworks Romane Charlot

Related Readings: