Irène Billard

“Walls (Madeleine), 2008“

ARTIST STATEMENT

“Walls” is a series of ten photographs. They capture that not uncommon attitude in children, the way they can emit a certain maturity along with the depths of their minds. The backgrounds, as dense as their gazes, underscore this gravity. These are children who are not. I am, as it were, a magnet. Certain gazes obsess and transport me, despite themselves, to new places. I see my images as a decoding, a reading that goes beyond the body in order to reach what is elusive.

ARTIST BIO

Born in 1984, I grew up in Paris, France, graduated in 2008 from Ecole des Gobelins (Photography) and in 2010 from the Beaux-Arts of Paris (MFA) . I take photographs, I draw, I write, I make videos and produce sound, recording the fine balance between repulsion and attraction to capture that moment of suspense and contemplation. Among the many exhibitions I have participated in, I had my first solo show in 2011 entitled “HighBeam” at Da-End Gallery, Paris.

Selected by Julian Cox, Chief Curator at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.