the child both as a consumer of objects and a child-object
In the Flesh & Plastic diptychs, the artist juxtaposes two close-up images: on one side, the real face of a child and on the other, that of a plastic doll straight off the shelves of the supermarket . Like mirror images, these faces respond to each other from an iconographic point of view, where the gaze seeks, even in spite of itself, to find points of concordance between the two images. Devoid of any narrative context, the face-to-face encounter with the subject represented creates unease in the viewer, who constantly moves back and forth between the human subject and the artificial mannequin.
THE FLESH & PLASTIC DYPTICS
FLESH & PLASTIC explores the use of children’s images in advertising, addressing the extent to which consumerism and publicity standardize individual behavior, paradigms and lifestyles. The initial attraction to an aesthetic image of beauty and perfection is gradually accompanied by a deeper, often unsettling sensation – a state which allows exploration of the boundaries related to one’s own personal perception of identity.
How do we distinguish the child/copier, on one side of the diptych, from the doll/archetype, on the other? Both have an empty stare, not looking at me but inviting me to gaze at them. An extremely complex and uncomfortable paradox of illusion and disillusion revealing the child both as a consumer of objects and a child- object. extrait de la catalogue The Flesh & Blood Toystore by Jean-Pierre Klein.