Claude Cattelain likes the things to be understanded. He likes to strip shapes,
techniques and materials of all their supperfluous effects. Gone are the sculptor's knife, the decorator's chisel and the carpenter's saw : Claude insteads manipulates and usesthe raw material of the ordinary object. With his hands, head, arms and feet he has kneaded, carried, planted, crushed, held and aspirated...These carefully ordered actions have structured his performances, which are based on communicating vessels and displacement. As his body expends energy the artist obstructs its movements. In places which are confidential or almost inaccessible (except for public performances), his actions are thought out, excecuted and framed in accordance with the camera filming them ‐all in a static shot.