Language

Joséphine

 

 

My exhibition aims primarily to convey the topic of mental duality. Dualism is known to be the contrast between the physical and the mental, however, I see it more as a battle inside of one's mind. This is nowadays a national phenomenon that is recurrent especially in our generation, due to lockdowns, curfews, masks, all restrictions, having many psychological consequences.  And at a turning point, I concentrated on the fractured mentality, which is the ongoing theme in the whole of my work.

In my work, I have explored many different mediums such as paint, clay, plaster, chalk and charcoal, and drawing. When I started working with plaster and modroc for Antagonist, one of the key pieces of my exhibition, I managed to make 3 faces interlaced with wire, having such a strong message, the course of my work changed completely to focusing on figures, mental state, fractured identity, ie. duality. Antagonist arose from my grandmother's struggles with mental illness, as well as Laurie Anderson’s novel Speak, where she explores the ideas of loneliness and vulnerability in today’s society. Antagonist evolved to represent the increasing feelings of disconnection and wariness, representing a fractured modern identity. Next, I created a clay sculpture, Ancient History, but instead of making it heavy, I made it light, emphasizing internal space. It resembles a fossil, one of the first living creatures that created an effective and very efficient shelter out of a tiny bit of material. Hidden Truth, however, is a human-sized body piece, made out of plaster, and modroc paint, using mirrors to reflect the spikes in the interior of the woman’s body. It is similar to an Iron Maiden, a supposed medieval torture device. I believe the Iron Maiden caught people’s imaginations because the idea of a human shape filled with spikes makes sense with how people often feel, so the Iron Maiden has an emotional truth even if it lacks a historical one. It speaks the truth about many people’s experiences of their bodies and pain, whether that pain is literal or emotional.

Many different artists have inspired my works on duality. The most important ones were Frida Kahlo, Marc Quinn, and Frank Messerschmidt for Antagonist, as they either had a theme linked to mine or were physically appealing and transmitting what I wished to transmit. On the other hand, Ancient History was simply inspired by the works of Barbara Hepworth and Rebecca Horn for their aesthetic and not the meaning. Ben Nicholson was a major influence on my two wooden panels, Majorelle Children and Simple figures, as even though he carved into plaster it gave me the idea to superpose wood. 

My exhibition space is a room with two entrances, four walls, and strong lighting. Not knowing from where people would enter, I placed Antagonist (the three-headed sculpture) in the center of the room as this depicts my theme well. I hung Simple Figure and Majorelle Children near the entrance to attract attention as they are the most colorful pieces and the large format painting Fallen Tree is on the facing wall to be one of the first pieces noticed by the audience. On the remaining wall I assembled some of my earlier work True Colors, Reflexion, and Hidden Art, since all three of them have a theme of the city and reflections. Lastly, my large sculpture Hidden Truth takes a dominant space on the floor next to the big windows to take advantage of the light falling on it and draws the audience's attention to it. 

To conclude, I want to allow the viewers to reflect on the conflict in their minds so they can relate to my different pieces and how they represent this aspect of being lost and fractured both figuratively and in a real sense.

 

 

Reflections (September 2020)

Marker, newspaper, tape, and ink

120 x 30 cm

Reflection in Paris focused on the reflections of the boats and objects on the water, as when I took the pictures it was a beautiful day.  Secondly, I was inspired by Karen Stamper with her Lucy collage for her use of different techniques to create a beautiful piece. I laid out 7 of my photographs in one collage as they all had one thing in common, which was their extremely clear reflections. I wanted my piece to reflect how beautiful life is and how lucky we are.

 

 

True colours (October 2020)

Chalk and charcoal drawing (white and black chalk and charcoal on paper)

50 x 63 cm

My piece is called True colours because the boat is back and white and these are the true colours of Paris. I was mainly inspired by Monet’s work as I liked how the reflection of his boat wasn't detailed so from a distance you could see it clearly. So I tried to replicate the rounded shapes he made in the water as they were extremely clear in my photography. The title came from the fact that it is a drawing is black and white which made me think of Paris in the 1900s.

Ancient History  (November 2020)

Ceramic

24 x 10 x 24cm

Ancient history is my first sculpture, it is hard to understand what it is as I developed my ideas a lot. I started my looking at the wheel of a boat and I distorted it so that it would look like a fossil, like Barabara Hepworth and Rebecca Horn’s pieces. Finally I made a sample and replicated it by using a mold and putting the parts together. Looking like a fossil I called it Ancient history as fossils are remains of a prehistoric design.

 

 

Hidden art in Paris  (December 2020)

Acrylic paint on canvas

30cm diameter

I named this piece Hidden art in Paris as I truly believe that graffiti art is not admired enough and there are a lot in Paris. Dondi was a big inspiration, he is famous for the graffiti he makes on metros. To make it realistic I needed the right colours to paint an exact replica, so I was testing colours during the whole project to have the right ones. A technique I used was dividing my canvas in 4 parts so that I would work progressively, I then started by sketching the whole wall. 

 

 

Antagonist (March 2021)

Plaster, Modroc, PVA, paper, wire, acrylic paint

32 x 25 x 13 cm

Antagonist is a representation of mental illness, and more specifically bipolarity. It is a sculpture that shows the struggle of juggling mood swings and the loss of who you really are. Wire in between both heads represents the link between all phases of the person, like in Las Dos Fridas by Frida Kahlo. The pictures and techniques I used to apply them were designed to give different effects to the viewer, they are mostly blurry and ripped making it look like damage on one’s head.

 

 

Abstract disorder (Mai 2021)

Acrylic paint, paper

60 x 85 cm

Abstract disorder is a representation of food disorders, more specifically anorexia. My project is a painting that represents metaphorically how girls nowadays see themselves. I got this idea as my previous theme was mental disorders, so this was for a close friend going through this. Anorexia is shown, as a thin girl and her reflection that is much fatter than she actually is, and seriously thinks it. Another source of inspiration was Lucian Freud, who is known for his Supervisor Sleeping.

Falling tree (October 2021)

Acrylic paint on canvas, wood

160 x 120 cm

Summer 2021 was based on my own photograph of a tree branch falling in the water and its reflection. The mixed media represents this duality, reflective branch and the real branch. I also wanted to represent it with a realistic aspect in comparison to the abstract background.  From this I visualised an abstract colored background inspired by Gerhard Richter's painting techniques. Anselm Keifer inspired me to use wood to add volume to my 2D piece.

 

 

HIDDEN TRUTH (November 2021)

Modroc, plaster, paper

176 x 144 cm

HIDDEN TRUTH is at the top of a full-size body. The contrast between the smooth exterior and the spikes on the underside represents the difference in how on the outside we appear content,  but the truth is our hidden dissatisfaction, emptiness, and anger inside. The work of the Asian artist Ki-Pyung was an inspiration, the main themes are impermanence, identity and conformity.The duality present in my piece started by looking at the emptiness of his Existential Sculptures.

 

 

Majorelle Children (February 2022)

Oil Paint, acrylic paint, wood.

47 x 38cm

Majorelle Children was inspired by Ben Nichlson’s famous simple pieces.  Using Majorelle blue as a base colour, and adding a small amount of texture on 3 pieces of wood, overlapped by a light yellow line, makes this piece a more decorative one. The infant-like drawing is made on purpose, in contrast to classical one line figures. We can once again see this duality, with 2 textures, and faces. Additionally to this recurrent theme of figures and mixed media.

Simple figures (March 2022)

Oil Paint, acrylic paint, wood.

177 x 48cm

Simple figures is a mixed media piece also using Majorelle blue for the line, but this time having a pink base. In addition, the lay out of the wood planks made the piece quite tall. Once again, figures are present and superposed in accordance to the wood planks. Inspired by Pablo Picasso’s less famous one line simplistic drawings, and Ben Nichlson’s pieces, whether they be sculpted or painted they have this layered aspect. Nevertheless, I added more texture on the base as I used acrylic paint.