This artist, who focuses primarily on sculpture and drawing, has a unique place in the field of French art. After studying and working in New York, Anne Rochette pursued her formal and aesthetic research in France. Very quickly the universe created by the ensemble of her sculptures became the occasion to evoke a troubling memory and each of her pieces – places of echoes and dialogue with the environment – are reminiscences of it. Since the end of the 1980s her travels to China, India and Australia have played a significant role in her imagination: poetically resonant works born from these intuitive encounters invite the viewer to contemplate a new reality and to connect their story to that of the earth and humanity. After these journeys, she discovered new artistic practices and experimented with different ceramic techniques. In this vegetal and mineral universe, her ring and bulb sculptures transformed into elliptical and organic forms, and her ceramics mutated into amorphous and troubling bodies.

Amongst various public commissions she received is Comptine (2000), composed of four small polychrome bronze sculptures including a central fountain and a mushroom which are placed between the flowerbeds of a vegetable garden in the Tuileries Garden in Paris. The ensemble recalls the tale of Alice and Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. She also created a group of six sculptures for the region of Picardy, Pierres galantes, composed of carved Mello limestone. In contrast to the troubling atmosphere of the vegetable world, the white of the stones in La Goutte d’eau, Le Banquet and Le Banc au collier de perles (Pierres galantes series, 2007) appears as a gentle reminder of earthly immutability. A. Rochette has been teaching at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris since 1993.