Valérie Belin: Black Eyed Susan

FROM THE BOOK

"Belin does not picture the world; her forte is artistic style and her method is the series. She has photographed series of bodybuilders, potato chip packages, transvestites, car wrecks, mirrors, electronic waste, nightclub dancers and much more. There is something explicitly feminine in what she does; her understated picture planes do not obscure the potential of empathy. They are also slightly wintry--glistening fresh and unscented, rhythmically afloat and never without a touch of laconic humour. No doubt about it, Belin is a superb designer of Baroque sur-réalité. She has an erringly French eye for discovering and capturing attitudes and allure. She can sniff out posing and affectation even in cars and animal cadavers. She turns them all into big-eyed mannequins: mute faceless beauties with no history. Accordingly, her oeuvre is also a large-scale study in every conceivable form of emptiness that has deliberately gone to extremes, be it a Lido dancer, a magician, or a basket of fruit. No one tries to hife the make-up or the closeness to the lamplight; everything is done for effect. Latent, ice-cool eroticism: the radiance and clarity of the pictures merely enhances their enigmatic appeal. Belin does not seek extravagance, distortion or tantalizing provocation. Her most strikingly compelling illusions do not glorify the warmth of the flesh, on the contrary, they confront us with a disconcerting désincarnation--like Casanova, we suddenly realize that we are dancing with puppets."

Tobia Bezzola, excerpted from Black Eyed Susan.