Emmanuelle Villard
dal 23/11/2011 al 13/1/2012
Segnalato da
23/11/2011
Emmanuelle Villard
Galerie Les Filles-du-Calvaire, Paris
Artifici finti #1. The artist's works are sometimes baroque, often decadent and always complex. Their perhaps overly shiny surfaces cast a deformed and cloudy image of ourselves and of the world around us, inviting us to reassess our perceptions.
Artifici finti is a double exhibition by Emmanuelle Villard at both Les Filles du Calvaire Gallery and at
abbaye de Maubuisson.
The artist’s extensive monograph published by Analogues (with a text by Eric de Chassey), due to come
out early 2012.
Using a profusion of materials, colours, effects, embellishments and ornamentation, Emmanuelle Villard
paints in a way similar to a drag queen doing her make-up: lavishly and over-the-top. In both cases, it’s all
about creating an exaggerated counterfeit appearance. Using this facade as a canvas, the drag queen tries
to conceal the man within to make way for a cleverly choreographed and exuberantly feminised entity, all
the while open about what lies beneath. Although there is illusion, there is no delusion. Thus, Emmanuelle
Villard dresses up her work in such a way that her pieces become inevitably alluring. Does the artist
consider painting to be pretending?
Emmanuelle Villard’s work cannot be taken out of context or even outside of the artist’s own era. Her work
is brimming with art history, problematic debates and pictorial references. But nevertheless it remains
directly linked to how the artist perceives the society in which she evolves; that is, a divided society resting
upon values of power, luxury and appearances and in which the quality of art work is gauged by its market
value. This world promotes a ‘make believe’ attitude, but it also creates nostalgia; a notion that can lead to
ambiguous views based on ideals of purity.
These paradoxes and controversies are tools the artist uses to shape her work. The ambivalence is revealed
through the spectrum of seduction and revulsion. Her work originates from artefacts, devices and contrived
objects: diamante, trashy jewellery and fake beads, sequins, distorting mirrors... All things that shine, glitter
and sparkle and that catch the eye. In Emmanuelle Villard’s work, these devices are used to trick the
audience: they enable the artist to showcase the emerging escalation of sharp travesty in a Duchampian
satire. The artist creates works that are sometimes baroque, often decadent and always complex. Their
perhaps overly shiny surfaces cast a deformed and cloudy image of ourselves and of the world around us:
they invite us to reassess our perceptions.
Artifici finti – # 2
At abbaye de Maubuisson, Saint-Ouen-l’Aumône (Site d’art contemporain en Val d’Oise)
Exhibition from 30th November 2011 to 28th May 2012
Press opening Wednesday 29th November at 11am (free shuttle bus leaving from Paris).
Image: Emmanuelle Villard, OV-50.02, 20010, technique mixte, 50 cm de diamètre x 70 cm
Opening on Thursday 24th November from 6pm to 9pm
Galerie Les Filles-du-Calvaire
17, rue des Filles-du-Calvaire - Paris
Open from Tuesday to Saturday, 11am to 6:30pm
Free admission