Henri Papin
(Meijers & Walsh) 

Identifies as: Tricky Walsh identifies as non-binary
Language/Language group: English
Website: www.trickywalsh.com  and www.mishmeijers.com
Instagram: @henripapin @henri_papin @mishmeijerz @tricky_walsh


Henri Papin is a fictional narrative which, for the last fifteen years, used the aesthetics of museum culture to define their world. In a time of shifting contexts and re-writing the mistakes of our collective past, Henri Papin is coming clean. History is even less important in the face of immortality, but what of the rest? What does the future hold for one who lives outside of time?

Artist bio

 

Henri Papin’s practice examines the role of fiction as a predictor for human behaviours, integrating historical events into an overarching non-linear and topo-biographical narrative. Papin constructs large and complex site-specific installations which use both conscious and unconscious sense states to allow the fantastical and dream-like to coexist with more overt existent ‘realities’.

An obsessive collector of both objects and experiences, Papin not only archives found objects but also recreates and reconfigures them as part of a developing ‘material culture’ which informs the focus of the narrative. Henri Papin is a collector and a character invented by artists Mish Meijers and Tricky Walsh. They have been working on the project for the last fifteen years.

 


13.07.2020


#inreceiptofstolengoods

#henripapin in a #nonlinear #speculativefiction project which has been running for fifteen years by artists #mishmeijers and #trickywalsh

#henri_papin has lived in a world defined through #museum aesthetics; the #collecting #taxonomy which #appropriates objects and ephemera into a particular #hierarchy

It has been #geological in both a #material and #psychological sense, and about #collecting in a #voyeuristic and #thievery sense

#time is a flexible thing, and the project, now loosened from the constraints of #history is allowing a sort of #slippage or #unpeeling of the character and their relationship to the world.

#henripapin, the #pseudonym and the #adoptedpersona has #stolen the #essence of things stolen by: #nhmla #nhmlondon #n.h.m.newyork #mineralotech #australianmuseum #museodegeologiaunam #lordhowemuseum
#wchczeehan #galley_museum


14.07.2020

 

#inreceiptofstolengoods

#henripapin began with a #museum display although that was perhaps not immediately clear, because the #objects collected retained a #significance beyond their immediate relationship to each other.

And sometimes they #collected things that were not objects at all. #Gestures, #conversations, #notes, #bodilysamples, #confessions, and much more.

#henri_papin always held a soft spot for #naturalhistorymuseums and particularly #mineralcollections within these for their #diverse and #magical #architectures

There is something which, on every #scale allows a kind of #projection of the self into that idea of #deeptime. This is part of the #speculation – if you revoke this #manmade construct of time, what else might you be able to #dissemble.

#mishmeijers #trickywalsh
#nhmla #nhmlondon #n.h.m.newyork #mineralotech #australianmuseum
#museodegeologiaunam #lordhowemuseum
#wchczeehan #galley_museum
#NaturalHistoryMuseumLondon
#MNHN #SAmuseum #mfnberlin #MuseumfürNaturkundeBerlin
#goteborgsnaturhistoriskamuseum
#NaturalHistoryMuseumofVenice


15.07.2020


#inreceiptofstolengoods

#henripapin is staring into the #glasseyes of an #extinctspecies

#henri_papin has been travelling across #continents (when that was a thing) and #payingrespects to the #remains of things. In this dozen or so rooms are tens of thousands of creatures that would never have #inhabited the same space if we had not #forced them to.

They, even though they are also a collector, sometimes wonders at the #openness of the #crime. How after all, can one #own something that was #neverforsale.

You can get away with a lot in the name of science and education. Even when it hasn’t been #science or #education for a long time.
You can get away with a lot more in the name of #entertainment.

#mishmeijers #trickywalsh also saw the #diaspora of the #dead in the rooms of:

#nhmla #nhmlondon #n.h.m.newyork #australianmuseum
#lordhowemuseum
#NaturalHistoryMuseumLondon
#MNHN #SAmuseum #mfnberlin #MuseumfürNaturkundeBerlin
#goteborgsnaturhistoriskamuseu

m
#NaturalHistoryMuseumofVenice​


16.07.2020

 

#inreceiptofstolengoods
#henripapin wonders if it is shinier, then is it cleaner?

They move away from the #organic and into the #mechanical, eventually into the #electronic and then the #digital and wait patiently for us to realise the #nextmove.

These room are equally full. Instead of animals with their dramatic poses of prey and predator (to which we remain #curious photo-taking #spectators, as if we are somehow removed from this scenario) we find #objects which start to imply life beyond #survival.

This is perhaps the point that the #commodification of #desire really goes into overdrive. We have begun to #augment life and these rooms show the many and varied ways we have done that.

The thing with #augmentation is this oppressive undercurrent of #homogeneity. We are trying to make sure that everyone (not everyone, but let’s #pretend for a minute) has the same level of access, the same #rights and #privileges and we have hidden the side-effects of #technologicaladvancement reasonably well, unless you lift up a corner of the rug.

But why look under the rug when you can look up at the #stars?

#henri_papin looked at the stars, (and in the back rooms, and yes, under the carpets) in these places:

#miraikan #museedesartsetmetiers
#ri_science #instituthenripoincare #londonsciencemuseum


17.07.2020

 

#inreceiptofstolengoods

#intermission
#timetoalludetotheideaofcomingclean
#hideitinplainsight
#boyer #norskeskog #henripapin #henri_papin #mishmeijers #trickywalsh #thievery #assimilation #thecollector #nonlinear #pseudonym #slippage #posttime #speculativefiction


18.07.2020

 

#inreceiptofstolengoods⠀

Henri Papin is obsessed it is true. I guess it is hard to comprehend a species that so openly⠀
works against their better interests.

One that fluctuates between the #coma and the #paroxysm One that birthed Nikola Tesla who gave his inventions for free for the betterment of people and this idiot who uses your information to rig elections.

Things tend to start out with the best of intentions but we are a species that only really wants those for an inflated minority. Perhaps it is the pack mentality talking, I’m not sure. But they avoid packs for a reason, however compelling they may be from a distance.⠀

@henri_papin is pretty over it.⠀
mishmeijers and trickywalsh agree.⠀

The things in these rooms were made by people. They signify that first stage of invention, the initial brilliant spark of a question made manifest. ⠀

What they don’t show is how capitalism takes that spark, IPR’s it, cuts all the corners, exploits countries that are “less developed” by forcing them to take the environmental and health risks, and then saturates the world with a diluted forest fire of a product that will inevitable by shipped back to those “less developed” countries in three years (likely much less) to be buried in increasingly toxic landfills. ⠀

If you didn’t laugh, you’d buy.

#museedesartsetmetiers⠀
#ri_science #instituthenripoincare #londonsciencemuseum⠀


19.07.2020

 

#inreceiptofstolengoods⠀

Henri Papin is definitely part of the problem.⠀

Henri Papin has worn the cloak of privilege knowingly. There are reasons, but that’s not really a reason, if you get me.⠀

#mishmeijers and #trickywalsh are curious to know what will happen next. When the cloak dissolves, when there is a degree more clarity to the situation.

It’s an exciting thing, possibility. New rules, even, can be exciting if you’re a mutable kind of person.⠀

The things that are shown here are shown to acknowledge some of the problematic sources of material which have determined directions in the project. They are, at the same time, genuinely beautiful things trying to be good-natured. Things in themselves are not really the problem.

The compulsion that we collectively share, this insatiable need for the next thing, or the thing that they have that I don’t have, or the things that Will Make My Life Better or Easier or etc etc etc is definitely a large part of the problem.

And while the solution is not burning it all down it is definitely a tempting concept. At least for a fictional character in a largely fictional world anyway.⠀



Past Actions

07 Jun - 13 Jun 2021

Unbound Collective

31 May - 06 Jun 2021

OLC Art Collective

24 May - 30 May 2021

Naomi Hobson

17 May - 23 May 2021

Adrft Lab

10 May - 16 May 2021

Pat Brassington

03 May - 09 May 2021

Eddie Abd

26 Apr - 02 May 2021

Loren Kronemyer

19 Apr - 25 Apr 2021

Guo Jian

12 Apr - 18 Apr 2021

Kenny Pittock

05 Apr - 11 Apr 2021

Jannawi Dance Clan

29 Mar - 04 Apr 2021

Gillian Kayrooz

22 Mar - 28 Mar 2021

Nathan Beard

15 Mar - 21 Mar 2021

Pilar Mata Dupont

08 Mar - 14 Mar 2021

Michael Cook

01 Mar - 07 Mar 2021

Seini F Taumoepeau

22 Feb - 28 Feb 2021

Dani Marti

15 Feb - 21 Feb 2021

Lill Colgan & Sab D'Souza

08 Feb - 14 Feb 2021

Chris Yee

01 Feb - 07 Feb 2021

Rochelle Haley

25 Jan - 31 Jan 2021

Karrabing Film Collective

18 Jan - 24 Jan 2021

Nici Cumpston

11 Jan - 17 Jan 2021

Johnathon World Peace Bush

07 Dec - 13 Dec 2020

Aphids

30 Nov - 06 Dec 2020

Raquel Ormella

23 Nov - 29 Nov 2020

Léuli Eshrāghi

16 Nov - 22 Nov 2020

Rolande Souliere

09 Nov - 15 Nov 2020

TV Moore

02 Nov - 08 Nov 2020

Gutiŋarra Yunupiŋu

26 Oct - 01 Nov 2020

Ivey Wawn

19 Oct - 25 Oct 2020

Naomi Blacklock

12 Oct - 18 Oct 2020

Sancintya Mohini Simpson

05 Oct - 11 Oct 2020

Yhonnie Scarce

28 Sep - 04 Oct 2020

Ruha Fifita

21 Sep - 27 Sep 2020

Kaylene Whiskey

14 Sep - 20 Sep 2020

Adam Linder

07 Sep - 13 Sep 2020

Archie Barry

31 Aug - 06 Sep 2020

Min Wong

24 Aug - 30 Aug 2020

Hayley Millar-Baker

17 Aug - 23 Aug 2020

Erin Coates

10 Aug - 16 Aug 2020

Diego Bonetto

03 Aug - 09 Aug 2020

Tyza Hart

27 Jul - 02 Aug 2020

Larissa Hjorth

20 Jul - 26 Jul 2020

Louise Zhang

13 Jul - 19 Jul 2020

Henri Papin (Meijers & Walsh)

06 Jul - 12 Jul 2020

Stelarc

29 Jun - 05 Jul 2020

Rainbow Chan

22 Jun - 28 Jun 2020

Jason Phu

15 Jun - 21 Jun 2020

Abdul Abdullah

08 Jun - 14 Jun 2020

Patricia Piccinini

01 Jun - 07 Jun 2020

Brook Andrew

25 May - 31 May 2020

Radha

18 May - 24 May 2020

James Tylor