Deconstructing and Resurrecting Nature with Artist Duy Anh Nhan Duc

To see more of his art, follow @duyanhnhanduc on Instagram. For more stories from the French-speaking community, check out @instagramfr.

(This interview was conducted in French.)

Before sculptor Duy Anh Nhan Duc (@duyanhnhanduc) deconstructs nature, every plant included in a piece is patiently examined. “I put myself at its level,” says the self-taught artist based in Paris. “Whether it’s grass or clover, I will get down on the ground to observe it.” All different plants are used in his sculptures, but his heart leans toward the dandelion. Many people consider it a weed or a nuisance, but from its delicate seed head, Duy Anh can create a soft mandala-like sculpture or the fur of an enormous bear. “It’s a plant that I have wanted to observe and work with since I was very young,” says Duy Anh, who has always been drawn to the dandelion’s fleeting beauty. “It is in dissecting them and rearranging them that inspiration comes,” he says.

From the series, called Dandelion, by Artist Duy Anh Nhan Duc and photographer Isabelle Chapuis as part of RAISE Magazine’s #16 Light Issue