on the left : Protection du gardien (2017)
Dubois has a particular predilection for the human body, and in particular the naked body, often depicted as the transgender form, hybridized, mutilated. However its depiction is heavily veiled in order to avoid preconceptions, allowing those who view Dubois’ work to enter her universe without any societal norms that might act as barriers, encountering questions of body, gender, madness, internal drives and the marginalised. If her work is often uncomfortable, it is because Aurélie Dubois calls upon the unconscious desires of her viewers. This itself is another way in which she can be considered an artist on duty, she reveals the unconscious, or buried desires, desires killed off by morals and taboos.
Comment fait-on les enfants (2012)
Mutante
Dubois is the both the director and lead actor of her own work. She features in many of her works, because she alone is able to express her exact feelings. However the ‘other’ is an integral part of her practice, becoming a double with whom she merges. This other is embodied by the artist Huu Nghia Tran, the main actor in the series "Human Behavior". This Other transforms through make up, little by little becoming Aurélie Dubois also.
Aurélie Dubois's studio
Aurélie Dubois’ Parisian studio is a laboratory of experimentations. Tools and utensils cover every surface: pencils, hammers, hardware, paint brushes and photographs.
Her recent exhibition “Voir peut-il rendre fou ?” (See if he can make you crazy) at 24Beaubourg gallery in Paris, curated by art historian Paul Ardenne, displayed the scope and depth of the artist’s uncompromising practice. Her work can be defined as a perpetual redefinition of the boundaries of the known. Spanning a range of medium from film to video, photography, drawing and installation, Aurélie Dubois invites us into her studio where she cultivates her erotic, solitary, strange, dreamlike world. Having graduated in 2002 from Paris Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Paris where she studied under Jean-Marc Bustamante, Dubois has since exhibited at galleries including Anne de Villepoix, Serge Aboukrat, Bank Galerie, Jacques Girard, Pascal Vanhoecke and galerie du jour agnès b, and fairs such as FIAC, Drawing Now in 2009 and Chic Dessin.
Aurélie Dubois
Aurélie Dubois's website. All images ©Aurélie Dubois
This article is part of H A P P E N I NG's series "One Artist, One Studio - Part 2"
