SHE HAS HER MOTHER’S EYES
Joëlle Dubois | She has her mother's eyes, 2022
Edition of 20 + 5 a.p.
22 x 16 cm, screenprint on enamel LAF/EMC of 1,50 mm, casette border of 2 cm
All handsigned and numbered + Label Emaillerie Belge 2021
The work is on view at the hall of de Vrienden at S.M.A.K. - Ghent
Joëlle Dubois (°1990, Ghent) takes the effect of social media on life as the main theme. She reflects on the digital absurdity and tries to capture these experiences in her work. The smartphone has acquired a daily place and has also changed our behavior. It is called an effect on our emotional life and makes us deal with our privacy differently. Even those who manage not to get involved are often filmed and watched unknowingly. Because we also look closely at others and formats are being developed that are brought to our living room on television. Joëlle Dubois is an attentive observer of this happening from a distance. She devotes herself with passion to this theme in an ironic and comical way. Her work is bright and colorful.
Dubois portrays her protagonists naked and unadorned. They are active participants in their own world with their own complex stories. Steeped in a drastic realism that in the digital world often turns out to be very distorted and untrue. The atmosphere is straightforward, explicit, but drawn from life. The naked characters in her work are prepared for any pose to meet expectations. They give in to social pressure.
Their nakedness, however, symbolizes their vulnerability. The cycle of their friendship and love relationships is also influenced by the screen. They long for that one message on their smartphone as an ersatz for real affection. Separation anxiety kicks in while waiting. For others, chat has supplanted real conversation, or has found solace in watching other people's happiness, and the Internet profile has become a controlled biography.
The hairy and obese people in compromising positions are not there for your viewing pleasure. They are absent from the male gaze. Their sexuality is completely unrelated to the viewer's needs. Dubois takes the power from the viewer and collecting it in the image itself. Power is only assigned to those who identify with the image: the woman. In doing so, Dubois reshapes the male gaze. Doing so she emphasizing her own strong role as an independent and emancipated woman and artist.
- Keteleer gallery.
https://smak.be/nl/nieuws/nieuwe-editie-joelle-dubois-she-has-her-mothers-eyes-2022
