Until October 26th, 2024, Galerie XII presents an exhibition by Dutch artist Marie Cecile Thijs. A photographer playing with temporality, Marie Cecile Thijs creates images embodying a relationship between past and present that seems unreal, even supernatural. Portraits of people, animals, flowers, objects and food inspired by 17th century painting, each of her subjects is marked by a disturbing stillness. This duality – between old and new, light and darkness, intimacy and distancing – is key to Marie Cecile Thijs’ work. For this exhibition, Galerie XII presents works from her different series: Flowers, Vases & Delftware, Food Portraits, Amazons and White Collar.
Food Portraits
The Food Portraits series consists of contemporary still lifes featuring culinary portraits. Suspended in the air, dynamic and slightly surreal, they capture the essence of fruits, vegetables and other foodstuffs. Marie Cecile Thijs looks at them as if she were meeting them for the first time, thus creating a new dialogue.
The Food Portraits series has been exhibited in the Dutch museums Nairac, Jan Cunen and Museum aan het Vrijthof.
Amazons
With the Amazone series, Marie Cecile Thijs composes a series of contemporary portraits of strong, courageous and independent young women associated with symbolism and historical references which give them a timeless character.
The work Silent Thought is part of the collection of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, Virginia, United States (VMFA).
White Collar
In the series White Collar, Marie Cecile Thijs makes fun of the wearing of a very fine Baptist collar from the 17th century belonging to the collections of the Rijksmuseum and the last example in the world of a model very popular among young people in the years 1615-1935. Extremely fragile, the collar was photographed at the museum before being added by digital collage on the different models.
The works Girl with White Collar at Table and Cat with White Collar entered the permanent collections of the Rijksmuseum in 2010. Girl with White Collar was exhibited at the Photo Museum in Chicago in 2011.
Flowers, Vases & Delftware
In Flower, Vases & Delftware, Marie Cecile Thijs creates a multifaceted world where fauna and flora compose a surreal universe. Through strong chiaroscuro contrasts and the use of 17th century Delft earthenware vases, these contemporary works connect the past to the present.
Marie Cecile Thijs
The work of Marie Cecile Thijs plays with temporality. By connecting the past and the present, she creates an unreal relationship around the notion of time. The images represent a floating moment, outside of time. When Marie Cecile Thijs constructs an image, she looks at the object as if she had never seen it, even if the object is familiar. Thus, she deconstructs the image she had in order to construct a new one. His work tends to represent a parallel world where time and space have different dimensions. Every detail seems familiar, real, but at second glance everything is different. The whole thing is both obvious and foreign. The image may seem classic, but surreal. In his world, the absurd is the norm. On the technical side, Marie Cecile Thijs works in a studio with a Hasselblad. Each photograph starts from an idea that she develops in her imagination before looking for ways to stage it and communicate it to the viewer. Whether she photographs men, animals or still lifes, her approach is the same. Before starting, she takes the time to familiarize herself with her model. She builds a story around the model. The characters and animals are always photographed from the front, they look the viewer straight in the eyes and reflect their own curiosity.
Marie Cecile Thijs
Until October 26, 2024
Galerie XII
14 rue des Jardins Saint-Paul
75004 Paris
www.galeriexii.com
