about

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Lou Rie (Marie-Lou Desmeules) is a Canadian artist living and working in Barcelona, Spain. She has exhibited internationally and was recently awarded an Artist-in-Residence at Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Aspen, Colorado. Lou Rie's interdisciplinary approach integrates painting, performance, photography, film and new media.

Recent exhibitions include Clone Corrupt, a duo at Anderson Ranch, in Aspen (USA), Retouch, a group exhibition at Galeria Duża Scena (Poland) and Cirugías Transepidérmicas, a solo at University of Valencia (Spain). Screenings she’s participated in include Interfilm Festival Berlin (Germany), Museum Hilversum (Holland) and Woman in Alternative Animation (NYC). Her work has been featured in VICE, Huffington Post and Nowness, among others.

ABOUT THE LIVING SCULPTURES

This ongoing project that I started in 2008, is an exploration of identity and image through a transformative process mimicking cosmetic surgery. Using people as a starting point, I apply paint and other materials to sculpt another identity on them, often they are made to resemble well-know modern archetypes, iconic figures, or pop celebrities. My photographs and videos function as an experimental and speculative dialogue between the model, the recreated subject, and myself. Under all that suffocating material, they are people who do not look anything like the final image. These works explore the image as a construction and the alter-ego in our digital age.

Photo: Nelo Hagen

ARTIST STATEMENT

Influenced by artists such as Cindy Sherman, Paul McCarthy and David Lynch, I create a contemporary iconography of current referents, mental states and characters inspired by the construction of the alter ego in our digital age.

The construction of the character begins with a model to which I subtract his identity through layers of paint and recycled materials. During the performance of each creation, I create a parallel universe of music, painting and energy that transports us to a metamor phosis which I capture in photo and video.

My work explores the ambiguity between beauty and ugliness that participates in the complexity of self perception. I investigate the sensation that is generated in each being in its metamorphosis by projecting a different identity and the anonymity of each being.

The result of my work is currently expressed through performances, photos and videos that awaken to the observer the awareness of who he is and who he represents through his mask. This mask is created through its digital image, plastic surgeries or other masks that we create consciously or unconsciously.