Frédérique Tristant

Her work revisits the female portrait from the perspective of a carnal envelope that brings memories to the surface of the skin.
As in her research on the first photographic atlas of dermatology by Dr. Hardy and Montmeja in 1868, she retouches each portrait with watercolor and acrylic paint. She takes over a physiognomy that she remodels and remakes as she pleases. She refines these masks that tell women's stories like the diary of our melancholy, our absences and our sensuality.
The wrinkles and folds of the skin paper anchor her work in the genre of the Vanities operating a clear shift from the photographic witness to the pictorial. The motifs (flowers, birds, stripes, toile de Jouy, liberty, gingham, etc.) allow him to pass from a real person photographed to a fictional character and to refuse the simple decorative aspect. The motif is a Proust's madeleine that makes his work nostalgic and his personal memories become universal.