Opaque Force

'Chloe felt an opaque force in her body, in her thorax, an opposing presence, she didn't know how to fight, she coughed from time to time to displace her adversary, hooked deeply to her chair.' (L'Écume des Jours, Boris Vian 1947, translation from French by Marie-Pascale Lafrenière)

For this artwork, I decided to investigate the character of Chloe, the object of desire of L'Écume des Jours' protagonist. In this surrealist novel by Boris Vian (1947), Chloe is a character often described in terms of her corporality, which can be divided in two parts: her beauty and her illness. These two elements work in establishing the clear power dynamic between her and the protagonist: him and his unimportant looks, her and her looks deserving of whole paragraphs; him whose actions make the story, her who passively undergoes this actions; him with the force, her who's destroyed by it - an opaque force.

This work will be presented at the exhibition Je voudrais pas crever on March 5-7 at Atelier 17, Vancouver BC.

Opaque Force (2020)