Interviewer: video.loss
Sybil Montet [IG: sybilmontet_] has joined #CO
<CO>
How did you start with 3D art?
<SYBIL>
I chose to work with 3D because I wanted to be able to create any vision without physical or production budget limitations. I come from film, I was first a video editor in a film production company in Paris – I wanted to be a director, but I didn’t have the ‘huge team’ feeling, organizing and managing people is something I struggled with. I’m drawn mostly to hyper scifi, paranormal, gigantic landscapes, magical imagery – The most expensive in cinema, so naturally I searched for ways to produce in autonomy, and I’ve learned 3D by myself. In 3D you are completely free in the sense that you can work in accordance with the rules of physics, via simulations, but you can also totally subvert them, mutate them. There is no limit except computing power. I want to be able to create worlds, situations, entities, anything I imagine. 3D is total freedom.
<CO>
How has your style developed over time?
<SYBIL>
I guess very instinctively. I just wanted to ‘materialize’ mental images and very sinuous, dreamy narrations, so at the beginning I was trying super hard to attain what was in my head, in my feelings – and I was learning while doing. You know sometimes these visions that are not really visual but atmospheric. First I was working with Cinema 4D without an external renderer, on CPU base, then one day I discovered GPU based rendering with Octane, and I think it changed my life. The feeling of proximity with ‘realness’, the control over the photorealism and light is incredible. It was when I was playing with Octane’s settings that I discovered an experimental way to work with lights. The software is really not made for this but in there I found some kind of tech that was just hypnotizing me and that was representing so much how I feel the lights and energy. It’s been around 2.5 years now that I’m really living 90% on CGI mode lol, and now I’m in a phase where I want to develop my modeling practice more. I’m super impulsive and instinctive in my workflow, my method is only thanks to strong discipline because naturally i’m so dreamy and impatient. 3D has taught me to be patient, and enjoy the process and not just the result. I’m working towards more methods and control because there are some ideas that I want to achieve that need more technique and even more high levels of concentration. I’m getting more and more serious, honorable commissions, I want to be at the level of my clients. It’s cool that people are now coming for my precise style, even if it’s sometimes a lot of pressure, I’m so grateful.
<CO>
Who are some visual artists whose work you admire?
<SYBIL>
There are so many, I’m in an almost constant state of looking at images, being from art or out of reality. I’m not really inspired by any 3D artist, but I have respect for Dario Alva, Timur Si-Quin, Nate Boyce, Builder’s club, Meriem Bennani, Tom Hancocks, Simon Kounovsky…
What inspires me most are artists from the field of concept art for game and cinéma, hyper talented artists like Jaime Jones, Karl Sisson, Paul Chadeisson, Vitaly Bulgarov…..
There is also a huge presence in my life of Japanese manga illustrators, like Tsutomu Nihei with Blame! -absolute beauty-
70’s/80’s/90s/ 2000’s science fiction/new age illustrators, I admire the masterpieces of directors like Denis Villenneuve or Christopher Nolan….. I also love landscape painters, like the american movement of early 19th, post surrealist painters from the 70s/80s, and finally fashion photography – I love Valentin Herfray’s work – and set design. I’m super fascinated by contemporary architecture and bio-inspired/ computational design, work from designers like Patrick Shumacher from Zaha Hadid arch, Neri Oxman’s and her lab at M.I.T, Material Architecture Lab, Biolab studio, Terreform 1… I could continue this list for so long it’s almost never ending.
<CO>
What inspires the concepts seen in your work?
<SYBIL>
I have a total fascination for natural phenomenons, events and creatures – how nature’s designs are the most optimal and visually perfect – but also futurology, innovation and the infinite and dual potential of technology & scientific research. How it generates ultimate solutions and ultimate dangers at the same time. I have an intense attraction for the paranormal, the occult, hidden forces. I guess these fundamentals mix, synchronise and hybridize in my various inspirations, going from industrial design for space or warfare, to deep ecology, bioremediation, earth sciences, gothic and fantasy imagery, UFO’s, secret government programs, violent natural events, geoengineering…. I’m super fascinated by things that are at very various zones of the cultural spectrum, like extreme demonic darkness or super cute Pokemons. I think the most definite concept for me is the notion of the shapeshifter. Like there is no definite form or identity, only potential, movement, energy, transformation.
<CO>
How has the internet influenced your taste and style?
<SYBIL>
The Internet is like another layer of reality. It’s not even a question of influence, it’s a total part of my daily existence. It’s a source of everything, knowledge, fun, madness, sexual games, artistic references, friendship, divagations.. internet is a source of power, of exploration, in a way, another form of existing in the world and the present.
<CO>
How do you think the internet affects the way we interact with art?
<SYBIL>
I think it’s super positive because it gives easy access to so much art and references, you don’t need institutions anymore to showcase your work, there is, in a way, less distance between artists and viewers-and the roles interplay. It’s nothing compared to experiencing an artwork physically, but I think there is no point to make comparisons or hierarchy. It’s just different layers of perception, of experimentations.
