Sylvie Selig

The figurative oeuvre of Sylvie Selig – unsettling, poetic and cruel, with a fairy-tale quality – spans a wide variety of media. Her protean work is made from drawings on fabric, embroideries, oil paintings, and sculptures assembled using old dressmakers’ mannequins with papier mâché, enriched by plant and animal materials and found objects. The oil-painted canvas Stateless, nearly 50 metres in length, tells the story of a hare that comes to the aid of a young refugee, whom law-enforcement representatives are trying to send back to a country at war. The 28 characters, which make up Selig’s Weird Family, parade on a podium, still and silent. Addressing themes of violence, control and domination, the artist’s pieces create multiple tensions that elicit contradictory emotions.

Stateless, 2017-2019
Huile sur toile | Oil on canvas

Weird Family, 2006-2022
Sculptures, matériaux divers | Sculptures, mixed media

Tenderness, sans date
Why Are You Leaning so Soon ?, sans date
She Gave Her Heart Away, sans date
What’s Falling Upon Me, sans date
Gorgon Medusa, sans date
The Left Hand Woman, sans date
Once, a Bird Made a Nest for Me, sans date
Once, She Decided to Be a Cloud, sans date
The Death and the Maiden #2, sans date
All the Sudden, There Was a Deadly Silence, sans date
Abortion #1, sans date
They Were Angry Dogs, sans date
The Death and the Maiden #1, sans date
Catch Me If You Can, sans date
Sometimes, The Birds, sans date
Blindfull Fall, sans date
Broderies | Embroideries

Also on view at URDLA and in The many lives and deaths of Louise Brunet at macLYON.