Les Maîtresses (2011) – Female Figures and Metamorphosis

Les Maîtresses is a cycle of drawings dedicated to female figures who have marked cultural and intellectual history through singularity and resistance. Among those referenced are Billie Holiday, Camille Claudel, Carmen, Esmeralda, and Lou Andreas-Salomé.

Executed in black marker on white paper, the works do not function as conventional portraits. Instead, the artist’s own physicality is integrated into the representation, producing hybrid figures that merge identification and interpretation. The line becomes the primary structural element through which projection and transformation occur.

The title, Les Maîtresses, introduces an intentional ambiguity. Rather than referring to possession, it evokes mastery and guidance. These figures operate as chosen points of reference—interior guides shaped through affinity rather than historical distance.

Within the cycle, self-portraiture becomes a site of passage. The artist’s image intersects with the represented figures, creating a layered construction of identity. The series frames influence not as citation, but as embodied continuity.