La Jeune fille et la mort.
par Anne MALHERBE
It is not without ingenuity that Florence Obrecht builds her own world. She gives life to dreams and teenager fantasies without trying to justify them intellectually - or at least without letting in the possibility for the viewer to do so.
Still, it is precisely this innocence, phony or real, that helps asserting the strength of her work and gives Florence’s pieces their strange charming effect.
The viewers are faced with young girls, turning into mermaids, whose grace or sometimes provocations irrepressibly attract them. Showing off their rock’n’romantic apparel, glamourous and gothic, they try to draw us to their universe.
Florence uses several supports such as painting, drawings, found objects and video installations to render the desired effect. When looking at her work, the viewers are left with two choices only: full resistance or total abandon to the imaginary realm that opens before them.