Le Chapeau de Sainte-Lucie

Dresses, aprons, miniature dolls, approx.43x28x28cm, 2016.

Like other of my works, these bring back childhood memories. They go back to an age when, fascinated by a collection of folk dolls that one of my grandmothers owned, I tried to grab them for play. I remember being aware of the kitsch of these miniatures and that it was precisely that that I loved and wanted to own, I remember wondering about the exact size of the little plastic bodies hidden under the stiff, colorful dresses. On possible underwear, or probable shoes. But the ban fell: “you only touch with your eyes”. The sacredness which surrounded these dolls with no real monetary value had to prevail over my lust.

Now fully grown, I am the only one alive because my grandmother was orphaned, I can reach out to the figurines, both paltry and essential. And grasp them to finally see the underside of things.

Paradoxically, or complementarily, through this acquired distance, the strength of the heritage of learned gestures is also proclaimed: if I produce these textile compositions, it is because I have deeply absorbed, through observation and mimicry, the patient gestures ancient women who sewed and that I, in turn, became, patience and persistence.

The title of the work and the shape of the hat double the work of a mystical reference: that of the celebration of Saint Lucia, the Nordic “Lucia”, wearing a crown of burning candles.