Kourtney Roy was born in the wilds of Canada, in Northern Ontario. She was raised by a family of lumberjacks and spent her youth trapping and taming wolves. She learned to use an axe before she learned to walk and had mastered the use of her father’s rifle and other small firearms by the age of twelve. After having spent a rather raucous youth drinking and bar fighting, she turned her gaze towards Europe, eventually settling in Paris once she was released from prison. Kourtney’s days in the French capital are spent hell-raising, drinking bourbon and photographing herself in seedy hotels and dilapidated trailer parks. These previously unknown images were found in her archives.
Born in 1981, Kourtney Roy is fascinated by the creation of a tragic mythology of the self. She imagines a personal universe where the marvelous and mysterious go hand in hand. Her work is above all based on self-portrait. The characters she incarnates are somber and sad, caught in banal worlds that seem an echo of time past. In these scenes of isolation, the women seem bored. She is inspired by normal and everyday places, because what is most disturbing is often what is most familiar. Kourtney Roy works for fashion magazines such as GQ, Japanese Vogue, Wallpaper, Esquire and Please. She has shown in gallery exhibitions in both Paris and Berlin.
Une canadienne à Deauville, archives ‘70
October 27 – December 2, 2012
Jardin de l’ancienne Bibliothèque
Place de la Mairie
Deauville, France
