Karine Arabian & Franck Blais

Artist duo Karine Arabian and Franck Blais, aka JN. MELLOR CLUB, mix craftsmanship and artistic references to create objects at the interface of design, art and fashion. Their refined, understated style stimulates the senses through compelling details which emphasise the sensuality of the material. Karine Arabian and Franck Blais explore the permeability between on point and pointless, seeking out poetry in the hidden corners of the everyday and transforming superfluous into highly desirable. They place particular importance on quality materials, sourced from dormant stocks, and exceptional savoir-faire, building bridges and forging connections between artistic practices and modes of thought.

Karine Arabian and Franck Blais’s residency drew on two important aspects of their work. Firstly, the craftsperson is an invisible presence, allowing the material to take precedence over their expertise. Arabian and Blais spent time in Kansai, a region of Japan that is historically associated with leather. They studied finishing methods and forgotten techniques that would allow them to express the beauty of leather while retaining its natural appearance, and play on rigidity and suppleness, glossy and matte finishes, to alter its structure. Show what cannot be seen: emotion and sentiment. Secondly, they considered the rules and rituals of display through a study of the tokonoma: an alcove in a Japanese home where natural and precious objects are exhibited. This intersection of the aesthetic and the spiritual resonates with how they approach objects.

Portrait : Karine Arabian / Franck Blais, crédit: Clarisse Tranchard
Photos : Gravats et petit tapis, crédit: Olivier Busson
Sacs, crédits: JNMC
Gravats, crédits: Gilles Jaroslav